Bootstrapped car & bike sharing startup Quick Ride is in discussion to raise its first-ever external funding. Sources close to the matter claimed that the startup is in discussion with Sequoia Capital to raise $4 million.
Both Sequoia Capital and Quick Ride have so far declined to comment on the fundraising report.
Quick Ride has been completely self-funded since its inception in 2015. Currently, It offers bike & car sharing services in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kochi cities. The company plans to launch its services in Mumbai and Delhi in coming months. The Bengaluru based startup claims that it records nearly 50,000 shared rides every day.
KNM Rao, Quick Ride’s co-founder, said to a leading business daily that the company managed to clock phenomenal growth this year and almost 65% of users come through referrals.
Meanwhile, startups with focus on solving people’s commuting problems have recently received huge funding from the investment community. This month alone three startups have received substantial funding from investors. These startups include Vogo, Bounce (previously known as Metro Bikes) and Shuttl.
Industry experts claim that commuting is a huge pain-point faced by millions of Indians every day. Hence startups involved in commuting space have become immensely attractive for investors, experts add.
However, startups focused on solving commuting problems through bikes and buses have not been able to make a splash like Ola & Uber. Analysts cite regulatory and other problems for this and claim that these problems are pretty manageable.