Bike taxi startup Rapido has been in a position to see about 75 per cent recovery for its enterprises so far compared to its pre-Covid efficiency. The organization is at present performing practically 3 lakh trips per day compared to pre-Covid 4-4.5 lakh trips per day even as cities such as Delhi and Hyderabad have recovered completely, according to Rapido Co-founder Aravind Sanka. The recovery has been for its bike and auto booking services combined. “Majority recovery is for bikes segment while it is still very early days for auto business…suddenly people who were never using ride-sharing, started using it during Covid. One of the challenges for public transport users is the price point and because bikes and auto are nearest at least to the public transport with respect to the price point and availability, they have recovered the most. Out of that bike taxi is the first and is the most recovered then comes autos and cabs,” Sanka told TheSpuzz Online in an interaction. The startup, which competes with the auto and bike-sharing services of Ola and Uber, was backed by Hero MotoCorp Chairman Pawan Munjal and had final raised Rs 390 crore funding led by WestBridge Capital in 2019.
Rapido had launched its auto-sharing service in October 2020 as commuters preferred autos more than cabs amid Covid scare. The startup completed more than a million trips in the very first 3 months of the auto service and is now hunting to comprehensive a month-to-month million trip by next month. “Bike segment is 10 times bigger than the auto though it is growing crazily at a higher speed. We don’t need to create a culture for the auto rides because India already has that culture and we just digitised the service. However, for bike taxis, we are creating a new market for people who were never travelling on a two-wheeler with strangers,” added Sanka.
In contrast, the cab-hailing services or on the internet cab booking industry, led by Ola and Uber, had continued to witness the lowest post-Covid recovery price. While the cab booking segment managed to recover from about 21 per cent (of January 2020 level) in September final year to 54 per cent in January 2021, demand for auto-booking services recovered from 48 per cent to 83 per cent, according to the information from the management consulting firm RedSeer. On the other hand, the bike-sharing vertical in the e-mobility sector also witnessed a healthier recovery from 40 per cent to 62 per cent throughout the stated period. The all round sector witnessed a recovery from 31 per cent in September to 63 per cent of the pre-Covid level in January 2021.
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“Unlike cars, bikes are open and from the Covid perspective, indoor is more risky than outdoor. Also, bikes are meant for a shorter duration. So, the chances of contraction are lesser than in cabs. In terms of cabs, a lot of customers may have gone back to their hometown and may not return until offices resume. This would impact the recovery of four-wheeler booking,” stated Yugal Joshi, Vice President at Texas-based consultancy Everest Group had told TheSpuzz Online.
Rapido on Wednesday had also announced a partnership with Zypp Electric to provide an EV bike taxi ride service named Rapido EV. The organization will be onboarding more than one hundred riders and electric two-wheelers from Zypp as component of its Captain fleet and will run the service as a pilot in Delhi-NCR for 3 months from the present month onwards. “While India is the largest two-wheeler market, only 1 per cent of it is electric,” Sanka added. The organization will be expanding to other cities and is working with its partners to allow electric autos as component of its fleet. Growing at 15 per cent month-on-month, Sanka desires to develop “more than 20 times in the next two years. It is an aggressive target, but I see that someone has to do it in India.”