Bengaluru-based startup Bounce has raised $105 million in funding through Accel Growth and B Capital Group. Their existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge and Sequoia Capital India also participated in this round of funding bringing Bounce’s total capital raised to $194 million, a staggering feat for a company that mainly operates in just two cities in India, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. This new round of funding has seen Bounce being presently valued at around $500 million. Bounce’s board of directors will now see Kabir Narang, General Partner at B Capital Group join its ranks. There are also ongoing discussions to raise additional debt of $50 million.
The new round of funding will see Bounce expand its operations, scale up its IT infrastructure to service customers better and adopt electric vehicles in an effort to reduce the companies carbon emissions. The current dockless model of Bounce has seen great success with 12,000 vehicles in its Bengaluru fleet and 2,000 vehicles in its Hyderabad fleet. The company also operates a docked scooter rental service in 35 cities across India making its potential reach massive.
The Co-Head for Asia at B Capital Group, Kabir Narang, in a statement, said ”B Capital Group has been impressed by the execution capabilities of the Bounce team. Bounce achieved over 16 million rides in 2019 and has with a highly engaged community of riders. With its dockless fleet of scooters, Bounce is a short-distance mobility solution that is affordable and efficient. Over 40 percent of Bounce rides start or end at metro stations, which also complements the public transportation infrastructure and solves the last-mile connectivity. In addition, a Bounce bike takes over six bikes off the roads, helping reduce congestion and pollution from cities.”
The co-founder and CEO of Bounce said “Our growth to 1,20,000 rides a day, in a little over a year and largely in one city, underlines that the future belongs to shared mobility. Shared mobility not only reduces the traffic but also frees up parking spaces, which in Indian cities is anywhere between 12-15 percent of the total usable real estate. However, the main vision of Bounce is to democratize mobility and thus make a significant socio-economic impact. This fresh funding will help us work towards this vision. It will also enable us to build a mobility platform that will help to bring in different forms of mobility solutions hyper-suited to the needs of cities and towns we plan to expand into, over the next few months.”
Due to Bengaluru’s congested roads and heavy traffic during peak hours, it is a highly lucrative market for shared-mobility. The other thing that makes this a prime market for shared mobility startups is the fact that Bangaloreans are quite quick to adopt services over the internet. Investors and founders of shared mobility startups are looking to change vehicle ownership to a pay-per-use model in an effort to reduce the stress on public infrastructure. Bounce has an active user-base of 2.8 million, which translates to 25% – 30% of the city’s population, and a monthly output of over 3 million rides. Shared mobility companies are poised to change the way we look at vehicle ownership.
