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Rapido : India’s Biggest Bike Taxi Pooling Service

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Though taxis were always there, the ride-hailing services have got even more popular after the companies like Uber and Lyft has come onboard. These apps provide the most convenient method to hire cabs and travel independently. But for a daily basis, these are not the affordable choice for people. In countries like India, there is also a problem of traffic in big cities, which also affect the efficiency of a rental car. But with the motorbikes, there is still hope for affordability as well as escaping the traffic. This very fact has inspired many people to build a bike ride-hailing service, and companies like Uber and Ola are not any exception. Even though these big companies could manage to host the very service, it is Rapido that has successfully established its motorbike ride-hailing service in India.

Rapido was founded by three engineer friends, Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, and S.R. Rishikesh, in 2015, in Bengaluru India. Sanka and Guntupalli are childhood friends, and Rishikesh was the flatmates with Guntupalli. Three of them were working as engineers in Bengaluru, earning good bucks, but none of them could not escape from the startup fever.

After the app-based ride-hailing services came to India, all three loved the concept and used those apps to commute to their offices and back. But it was not an affordable option. One fine day, all three decided to overcome this problem and look for some better and affordable option for daily travelling.

Rapido founders
Image Source: Forbes

Motorcycles are quite popular in India and are also the most affordable mean of travelling. All the three decided to quit their job and start working on a business model that will help people hire bikes to commute from one place to the other at cheap prices. At the beginning of their business, they named the company ‘theKarrier’. They started theKarrier in November 2014 and rebranded it as Rapido in 2015.

The basic idea behind the startup was to hire people who owned two-wheelers. The idea was different from Uber and Ola, as these company invested heavily on the vehicles. But in the case of Rapido, the bike owners just needed to register on the Rapido-captain app and verify their details with the company. And, they were good to go. Another thing that helped Rapido to rise above its rivals was that it did not bother that the driver wanted to be full or part-timer.

The driver in terms of Rapido is called the Captain, and the company provides its every captain with insurance. For the safety of the rider, it has included a few features on the app. The user gets the assistance just in a single tap on the app. Rapido has also set up a customer care service for the users and also offers perks on the rides.

Almost over 5000 drivers use the app every day, and an average of 15,000 drivers log in to the app every month. These drivers also complete over 30,000 rides per month on an average, and the company aims to make it one million rides per day by the end of 2019. The women drivers have also registered to the app and are successfully earning good money over it. According to the stats, the app usually registers drivers of the age between 18 to 50 years.

In April 2017, Rapido raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A funding, backed by Hero MotoCorp Ltd chairman Pawan Munjal and Google India managing director Rajan Anandan. By 2018, the company has raised $6 million in two rounds and was earning a $1.5 million revenue every month. It hosted the latest round of funding in August 2019 and raised over $58 million in funding led by Westbridge Capital. Rapido wants to spend this money on technical innovation and intends to reach 100 major cities in India soon.

Rapido began its service from Bengaluru and is now expanded to 40 cities across the country, including Hyderabad, Mysore, Vishakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Coimbatore, Indore, Guwahati, Surat, Patna, and the NCR region.

The Rapido founders got their names listed in Forbe ‘30 Under 30 Asia – Consumer Technology 2019’.

Uber IPO

Uber Suffers a slow Growth and a $5.2 Billion Loss as it Closed Q2 2019

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Uber just had its IPO, and it does not seem that the company is earning the expected profits. The company on Thursday revealed its second quarterly earnings after the IPO and has reported a loss of worth $5.2 billion. Though the earned revenue for the second quarter earned is $3.17 billion, it is still less than the expected revenues, i.e. $3.36 billion.

The price of Uber’s every share had gone down to $42.98 per share from its IPO price, i.e. $45, and the company closed the quarter at 9%. The reported net loss is the biggest loss that the company has ever gone through.

Recently Lyft also came out with its revenue for the Q2 2019 and also reported a loss of $644 million. Being smaller in size, this loss for the company is equally also huge. If we took out the various expenses, like Uber mentioned, “stock-based compensation expenses for employees”, the two are still at loss, as Uber has lost around a $1.3 billion, which is 30% more than last year. And, the total loss for Lyft is around $197 million.

Uber IPO
Image Source: pymnts.com

Uber has just earned a 14% growth up from its last year’s growth, whereas, Lyft has reported a 72% more growth compared to its last year’s growth, i.e. an $867 million.

“While we will continue to invest aggressively in growth, we also want it to be healthy growth, and this quarter we made good progress in that direction,” said the Uber chief financial officer Nelson Chai.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also made a similar statement and said, “We’re very confident that this company, at maturity, can be cash-flow positive.” Dara also said while talking to reporters, “We think that 2019 will be our peak investment year and we think that 2020, 2021, you’ll see losses come down. I think our break-even is something that we can push the company to break even if we really wanted to frankly.”

But is the company really experiencing any growth? In recent years, the pace of growth for the company has quite slowed down. Also, it had fired over 400 employees during the IPO as well. There have been more losses than profits in the entire journey of Uber, and it makes its position questionable in front of the investors.

Ola London

Ola Now to Run PHV Ride-hailing Service in London

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We are flooded with the ride-hailing services and Uber being the leader among them all, is giving a tough challenge to even many of the home-grown companies in various countries. Ola the India-based ride rental service provider has been also facing similar competition, ever since Uber has entered India. But to move ahead and beat the competition, Ola finally crossed borders and launched its first international ride-hailing service in Australia in January 2018.

Ola London
Image Source: mynation.com

Now the company is moving even forward and will be starting its ride-hailing service in the capital city of the UK, i.e. London. Last year, Ola started operating in South Wales, and it has now obtained the license from Transport For London (TFL) to start private hire vehicles (PHV) ride-hailing service in London. Though the validity of the license is only one year, and it is a non-carriage license.

According to the rules of the Transport Regulatory of London and the PHV licensing, the Ola drivers will need to register themselves and their vehicles with the license to run the Ola service in the city. Any vehicle that is having a seating capacity of up to eight passengers is eligible for the registration.

“London is one of the world’s most iconic cities and hosts a progressive mobility environment. We couldn’t be more excited to bring Ola to London in the time ahead! We are looking forward to building world-class mobility offerings for London, by collaborating with drivers, riders, the government and local authorities. Londoners will hear more from us closer to our launch in the city, as we get ready to serve them.” One of the Ola spokespeople said.

With more than 8 million people living in London, the scope for the service is quite high. Along with the PHV cabs, Ola also holds the license for the Black cabs, and over 10,000 drivers are already registered with Ola platform. The company has plans to collaborate with local drivers, transport services and government to bring better services to people of London and will be launching its services by the end of this year.

Since last August, the company has been expanding in various cities of the U.K and got the PHV licence for Liverpool, Birmingham and Reading in March this year.

Uber Finally Showcases the Internal Design of its Ride Sharing Air Taxi

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Uber is excited for the launch of its another arm, i.e. Uber Air, and have been working to finalise the design for its air taxies. Finally, after going back and forth with various designs, Uber has teased a reference design for its air taxi, which is more like the design of a spacious helicopter.

Uber Air
Image Source: theverge

The company revealed the reference design at its third annual Elevate conference, an event based on flying taxies, going on in Washington DC, started on June 11th. The showcased design represents how the company envisions its aerial taxis’ internal design to look like.

The company has taken the initiative of offering air taxies to help in reducing the congestion and traffic on the roads and plans to kick off the service starting from 2023. Since there is a lot of time left for the launch of Uber Air, the company took the pains to build a simulated design of the air taxi, to showcase the details of its internal design.

For the design, the company has partnered with aircraft interior designer Safran Cabin. The air taxi has got four seats, arranged in pairs in two rows. Behind the backseat, the passengers will get the space to place their luggage. Since the taxi is for short rides, the company has not paid much of efforts in embedding luxuries to it. The aerial taxi has to comply with the eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) standards, so the design has been kept sleek and simple.

“Together with Safran Cabin, we’ve designed for the first time in history, a bespoke aircraft cabin that is truly mission-driven for aerial ridesharing on Uber Air. Starting with the customer experience, it’s highly considered from the inside-out, yet extensible across different fuselage profiles, and carefully engineered with a path to certification.” Uber Elevate’s Head of Design, John Badalamenti, said in a statement.

Uber is making quite the efforts to become one supreme transportation company, and for its aerial taxies, it has even got companies, like Boeing, on board. Along with Boeing Uber has also partnered with Bell Helicopters and Jaunt.

At the event, the company also revealed the designs of the Skyports it will be building for the passengers to get a Uber Air. Uber even reported that it will be building its first non-US Skyport in Melbourne Australia, the city becoming the third official pilot city for Uber Air, after Dallas and Los Angeles.

Clear Car Rental: An Offbeat Startup that Received Nationwide Recognition

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In this era of stress-laden life, we start working as a machine the moment we set off our foot from the bed. And while we hurry to reach office in time, the unreliable services of public transport are the real disappointment. In this scenario, online car booking seems like a silver lining and saves our day.

Clear Car Rental is one such online car booking platform that provides the best rental services across India. A vast range of services is offered by Clear Car Rental which includes one day trip, round trip, travelling to different cities, far-ranging packages etc.

sachin kate
Image Source: Facebook
Founder of Clear Car Rental

Sachin Kate, a 28-year-old Indian fellow, is the founder of Clear Car Rental Pvt. Ltd. He is from Maharashtra, who is currently expanding his business by providing services in more than 210 cities in India.

Early life

Born into an economically weak family, in a small village of Marathwada, achieving success was never really a piece of cake for Kate. There were no schools in his village that provided education after standard 4. But this could not kill his determination to chase his dreams. So, after completing the 4th standard, he moved out of his place to a nearby village to complete his high school education. But this wasn’t easy either. Since his parents were mere farmers, the financial crisis was a common thing in his family. He started selling newspapers to fund his own education, and when he was in standard 11, he bagged himself a job, in a computer institute. He worked there as an office boy, but he never missed a chance to learn and explore more. Seeing his great flair for computers, the owner upgraded him as an instructor the very next year.

Since his parents were mere farmers, the financial crisis was a common thing in his family. He started selling newspapers to fund his own education, and when he was in standard 11, he bagged himself a job, in a computer institute. He worked there as an office boy, but he never missed a chance to learn and explore more. Seeing his great flair for computers, the owner upgraded him as an instructor the very next year.

After passing out from high school, he shifted to Aurangabad to pursue his higher studies. Since he needed to sponsor his own education, he found himself a part-time job in a travel agency. This is the time when the idea of establishing his own business clicked his mind. While working with the travel agency, he became quite susceptible to the ideas and strategies of how the business worked. This was the stepping stone towards his success.

Career

Initially, Kate began by creating a few travel websites by means of the technical knowledge he gained during the course of his high school. Then he, eventually, delved deeper into the colossal domain of travelling and learned more about it. After thorough research and analysis, he realized that travel by road wasn’t developed enough in India, though the tourism industry was rapidly expanding and flourishing. And, if this mode of transportation was enhanced, it would gain more customers, since it would be cheaper than transportation by air. Seeing this as a golden opportunity to bring a bigger change in the field of tourism, he made his mind to establish an online car rental service company. Thus, in 2011, he founded Clear Car Rental Service with a team of four members. This is when he crossed the threshold of his path and aimed for reaching its pinnacle.

With time passing by, the company expanded, and by 2013, the team had more than 100 people working in different sectors, like creating travel packages, online marketing, business development and other fields. It took no time for the company to carve a niche in the sphere of Indian travel and tourism, serving customers in more than 200 cities. Today, the company owns around 14000 cabs that are ready to serve their customers with the utmost care and comfort. Though the company provides services in all major cities, including the metropolis, it is focusing more on small towns to create more convenience for common people. The company has also launched a beta version of their online car booking system to enhance the user experience and make it easier to use.

Kate understands very well that in a developing country like India, every corner of it must get access to transportation to help it grow faster. His strategic mind and sheer determination to create something of his own led him to where he is today, thus curving his own future.

Belonging to a poor family like his, nobody expects of having such exposure and gain fame in the real world, due to lack of inspiration, financial and moral support. But Kate here sets a perfect example, breaking the orthodoxy of the society and proves that if you have the knowledge, and you are ready to work hard, you can achieve your dreams. And the most awe-inspiring fact about Kate’s success is that he didn’t borrow any money from his friends or family, or asked any banks for investments.

The future of the company

Though the company has set a remarkable bar in the business of rental service, the team wishes to provide even better services and launch products that will create wonders both in the car rental and tourism industry.

Uber Starts Trialing for App-Based e-Bike Service for its London Users

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uber jump electric bike
Image Source: uber.com

The UK is familiar with bicycle hailing services, Lime being the biggest player in the field in the country. After seeing many other bike hailing services run successfully, the UK is now ready to welcome Uber with its new e-bike hiring service. Uber has revealed that it is going to start trialling its electric bike hailing service with 350 of its Jump electric bikes in the London borough of Islington.

Uber also plans to expand into the other part of the London city after successfully completing the trial for a certain period of time. The company will be launching 350 bright red colour Jump bicycles on the streets of London for the trial. The users will be able to find and unlock the bicycle through the Uber app.

The Uber app will show the locations from where the users can get those bikes, charge them with 1 Pound to unlock the bike, guide the users to their destinations through the app’s map, and show them the parking locations after they reach the destination. After the users unlock the bike, they will be charged 12p per minute during the ride, following a five-minute free ride on the e-bike. There are some possibilities that Uber may provide the users with offers and discounts at the beginning, as it has been doing for all its services in the world.

There will be an up 25 pound of penalty for the users who will be parking the bikes away from the provided parking areas, or end the trip at a no parking zone. Though London has already got such bike-hailing services including Mobike and Boris Bikes, it will be interesting to see how Uber emerges midst such a rivalry in the field.

Almost a year ago, the company had almost lost its taxi license to drive on the streets of London, but now the company is all set to revive its services by implanting its Jump e-bikes on the roads of London. The company is already successfully running its Jump e-bike hiring services in the countries, including the US, Canada, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris, etc.