Ride-hailing unicorn Rapido is quickly scaling up its four-wheeler segment, which now contributes up to 25 per cent of its total bookings.
Aravind Sanka, Rapido’s cofounder, in a video interview with Udisha Srivastav/Business Standard, shares insights on the company’s plans to expand into the segment, how BluSmart’s exit has created an opportunity for the company, its push towards green mobility, and navigating state-specific policies.
What is your timeline to reach 500 cities?
We are adding at least 100 cities every quarter, and even in the last three months, we have launched in at least 150 cities.
We are now present in 300 cities. So, by the end of this year, we should be present in 500 cities.
What is the vehicle segmentation on the platform?
A year ago, 70 per cent of rides were coming from two-wheelers.
Today that number is at 50 per cent, indicating a significant growth in our three-wheeler and four-wheeler business.
We launched cabs pan-India in January last year, and in 15 months, we have been able to build a business as big as our bike taxi business in terms of gross bookings.
Currently, around 20-25 per cent of our bookings come from the cab segment. On an overall platform level, we have closer to two million captains.
From that, 20 per cent of the captains (nearly 400,000) are four-wheeler captains.
How has BluSmart's exit created an opportunity for Rapido in the market?
We’ve expanded our cab offerings to include at least four new categories.
After BluSmart, we recently launched 'XL' as a category, especially in Delhi.
In the last three months, we were able to launch at multiple airports by partnering with the airport authorities, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and other major airports.
So, from just that one segment, we went to multiple segments within the chosen group, and it was based on a zero-commission model.
Our focus is on bringing in at least a million more captains for four-wheelers on a platform.
Are you planning to raise funds anytime soon for expansion over the next year?
In the last 7-8 months, we have raised $200 million. We are not looking to raise anything and are well capitalised for our expansion plans.
It is not just about capital, it's more about how we keep givipeople value and make them believe in online platforms, because right now they have gone back to traditional offline platforms.
Rapido is expected to enter the food delivery segment. What do you have to say on that?
I am not commenting on this. Whatever we do, we will try to give value back to the users in any category.
In any category we enter in the future, we'll have a similar philosophy.
There are multiple opportunities that always knock on the door because of our scale.
We also want to see what the void in the market is.
So, a lot of the time, we don't enter just because someone has left that void.
We enter because we think the value is not actually getting passed for some reason.
Once you are in a very large market like mobility, you'll never think small.
Rapido had earlier said that in Delhi, 5 per cent of the fleet is electric. What's happening in terms of electrification goals and targets in Delhi?
There are a few things that we are doing, unique to Delhi.
For example, Delhi is the largest market for our e-rickshaw business.
In January, we were not present in e-rickshaws, but we started onboarding them, and that's one way of electrifying the rides on Rapido.
We are taking that from Delhi to multiple cities, such as Patna and Kanpur.
Even in two-wheelers, if you look at core Delhi, the numbers are way higher than 5 per cent.
We are working with fleet operators and charging networks to make sure both of them work in tandem.
For example, in Bengaluru, we work with three-wheeler EV fleet operators.
In Delhi, we work with two-wheeler EV fleet operators.
And now, in some markets, we are also working with four-wheeler EV fleet operators.
We are trying to come up with a model where we pass on the value to even a fleet operator, so that they can electrify the fleet.
Right now, we are working closely with 250 fleet operators, and the idea is to take it to 500.
The Maharashtra government has come up with an EV policy. How will this impact your business in the state?
We think there has to be some kind of incentivisation for people to shift from the status quo, and any developments like this will only add to the acceleration (of EVs).
We are super supportive of all these changes and incentives that the government is coming up with.
For example, two-wheeler consumers are thinking of an option between EV vs an ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle, and that has to happen in three-wheeler and four-wheeler as well.
We think some of these things might accelerate that.
In April this year, the Karnataka High Court directed bike taxi operators to halt services within six weeks. How will it impact your business?
The court also said that the government has to come up with a policy, and we are working with them.
At the same time, the scale at which we have been able to create local employment is massive because of bike taxis.
There is a broad level of acknowledgement in multiple states, and we think the government of Karnataka will also be looking at data and come up with the policies.
We are engaging with the government to see how we can solve this.
At the same time, the court has also given us a stay extension of six weeks, given that it is only a matter of a few weeks for the policy to come in.
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