Rapido received its first investment from Pawan Munjal in 2017. This startup recently received an investment of $120 million. It has become a unicorn with a valuation of $1 billion.
Rapido Success Story : Be it the rush of office in the morning or the hurry to reach home in the evening, thousands of people in about 100 cities of the country search for their means on a single app Rapido every day. Today this startup has become a unicorn, whose value has reached more than 1 billion dollars (about 8,300 crores rupees). But, do you know that this startup, which has covered such a long journey in just 9 years, started with an idea that came out after getting stuck in a traffic jam.
Now it is not possible to talk about traffic jams and not mention Bangalore city. Obviously, this startup started from this city which has the most traffic jams in the world. It was the year 2015 when Rapido was first launched and its job was logistics i.e. delivery of goods. But, Arvind Sanka, one of the co-founders of the startup, felt that due to traffic jams in Bangalore, office commuters face a lot of problems and an alternative to cabs should be provided. This very idea turned this startup into a successful company.
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The trio of co-founders is amazing
The idea and dedication of the three youngsters who started Rapido has made this startup reach the category of unicorn today despite facing many difficulties. Pawan Guntupalli, one of its co-founders, used to run a startup named Repin Labs earlier. He did his B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur. The second co-founder Rishikesh SR started work after getting a BE degree from PES University and he has also been the co-founder of a startup named IMPStant. He has been awarded the ‘Best Project of the Year’ award for his work. The third co-founder and current CEO Arvind Sanka gave the idea of making Rapido a bike taxi and he did mechanical engineering from IIT Bhubaneswar.
Started work with 20 people
In order to beat the traffic and start the facility of transporting people to their offices and homes at a low cost, the company initially engaged 15-20 people. This idea was successful and the demand for such a facility started increasing in Bangalore city. The work of the company was quite easy. Any two-wheeler owner could start work by registering his bike with the company.
No investor was found
Rapido was gaining momentum and the demand of people was also increasing, but the company did not find any investor even after 2 years of its launch. Every big investor was afraid that this small startup would not be able to compete with Ola and Uber already present in the market. Finally in the year 2017, Hero’s Managing Director Pawan Munjal showed a big heart and the company made its first investment.
Reaches more than 100 cities today
Once the company got funding, it never looked back. Today, Rapido rides are running successfully in around 100 cities of the country. This includes big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata. So far, around 20 thousand bikes have been registered with the company. Meanwhile, the company also had to face some legal restrictions in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
Now a $1 billion company
Starting in the year 2015, this company has achieved a market value of $ 1 billion today. The company recently received an investment of $ 120 million from Westbridge Capital and the company became a unicorn. Let us tell you that Rapido is the third startup to become a unicorn in the year 2024. Earlier, Zepto and Perfios have also become unicorns.
Tags: Business news, Indian Startups, Starting Up
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 30, 2024, 13:17 IST