Self-drive car company, Zoomcar has reportedly raised $40 million (approximately Rs 255.4 crore) in its latest round of funding. The round was led by automotive giant Mahindra & Mahindra. The funding round comes around 18 months after the startup last raised funds from institutional investors. In August 2016, Zoomcar had raised Rs 160 crore (approximately $24 million) in a deal led by Ford Smart Mobility, which is a subsidiary of the US-based automobile giant Ford Motor Company.

Zoomcar was founded in 2013 by Greg Moran and David Back, who later returned to the US. The startup claims to have a strong fleet of over 2500 cars and is currently operating in about 30 cities across India. Its main competitors include Myles, Revv as well as ride hailing apps like Ola and Uber. Zoomcar is backed by prominent investors including venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital, Empire Angels and Nokia Growth Partners, all of which participated in the Series C round of funding.

Mahindra & Mahindra, which is a part of the $19 billion conglomerate, stated in a disclosure made to BSE, that it had invested Rs 176 crore for a 16 per cent stake in Zoomcar Inc., the US-based holding company. The disclosure statement by Mahindra & Mahindra also added that the initial investment in compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) in Zoomcar India is expected to be completed by February 20, while the additional acquisition of CCPS in the company, if needed, is expected to be concluded by August 31 of this year.

“At Mahindra, we are playing a pioneering role in the shared mobility business and are looking forward to an impetus in it through this investment in Zoomcar. We are confident that this partnership with Zoomcar will help further our vision to transform mobility in the country, thereby creating a more connected ecosystem,” Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra said. J Sagar Associates acted as the advisors to Zoomcar on this deal and the investment made by Mahindra & Mahindra was carried out through a wholly owned Mauritius based investment vehicle, Mahindra Overseas Investment Company.

The current investment in Zoomcar by Mahindra & Mahindra will serve to strengthen the existing relationship between the two companies. Earlier, the two companies joined hands to accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption by launching E2o Plus vehicles on Zoomcar’s platform in Hyderabad and Mysuru.

“Our collaboration with Mahindra dates back to 2013 when we first kicked off in Bangalore. Most importantly, Mahindra shares Zoomcar’s vision for multi-modal urban mobility and we look forward to leveraging their diverse platform to help accelerate the transformation to a shared, electric mobility future for India,” Greg Moran, Chief Executive of Zoomcar, said. According to a company issued statement, the startup aims to add another fleet of over 500 Mahindra E2Os across 20 plus cities pan-India. In addition to this, the two companies are also expected to collaborate on electric charging infrastructure in order to expand the use cases for EVs.

In October 2017, Zoomcar launched a dock-less bicycle sharing service, PEDL, which is currently operational in 10 cities across the country and claims to have a fleet of over 3000 cycles. The service also claims to complete over 15,000 rides daily.  In an official statement released by the company, Zoomcar has said that the new funding received will help the platform hit over 15000 subscriber vehicles by the end of 2018.

“The company also expects to dramatically increase its cycle count to meet the robust customer demand. Zoomcar envisions that its PEDL service will operate across more than 75 cities by year end,” the statement added.

(Picture courtesy: www.qz.com)