Carzonrent buys out car-pooling firm Ridingo

Leading personal transport provider Carzonrent India Ltd on Monday announced acquiring Ridingo, a Bengaluru-based car-pooling start-up, for an unspecified amount in a cash-cum-stock deal.

"We believe over the next few years the biggest opportunity in the personal transportation sector is the build-up of shared economy," Carzonrent chief executive Rajiv Vij said in a statement here on the occasion.

As a mobile and cloud-based solution provider of ride sharing, Ridingo is supported by Google, Microsoft, Verisign, Kotak and Intel to scale up the start-up ecosystem in the country.

With a fleet of about 10,000 cars, the 15-year-old Delhi-based Carzonrent offers radio taxi (EasyCabs), self-drive car sharing (Myles) and chauffer-driven intra-city, outstation and limousine services.

"We are investing in technology, infrastructure and people to build a safe and sustainable eco-system for car owners and passengers," Vij noted.

Rated by 'Forbes' as one of the hottest start-ups and a part of the 'Nasscom 10,000 start-ups programme', Ridingo was co-founded by Vardhan Koshal and Srivatsan Mohan in 2013 and has about 10,000 registered users to form a peer-to-peer car-pooling community.

Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) is a representative body of the $150-billion Indian IT industry.

"With domain expertise in the ride sharing economy, we will soon expand our reach across the country by leveraging on Carzonrent's national network, corporate and individual customer base," Koshal said in the statement.

Carzonrent plans to expand its fleet to 100,000 cars for its sharing business, and extend its presence in 250 cities across the country to achieve Rs.6,000 crore revenue by 2020 from Rs.360 crore per year currently.

Carzonrent has about 60,000 registered customers who use its Myles self-drive cars for local and outstation travel.

"Though the Indian cab market size is estimated to be Rs.54,000 crore per annum, only 8-10 percent is in the organised sector, which has been growing over the last couple of years with the entry of international and domestic players in car pooling, car sharing or ride sharing," Vij added.

Carzonrent operates in 65 cities across the country, with presence at 10 airports, major railway stations, prominent hotels and malls. Its 8,500 drivers do about 20,000 trips, clocking over 100,000 km daily.