IntrCity SmartBus secures ₹250 crore as India's intercity travel booms

Asset-light aggregator plans to double fleet and reach Rs 1,000 crore revenue as sector grows 10-13% annually

IntrCity SmartBus, a tech-enabled inter-city bus network platform, has closed a ₹250 crore Series D round, led by venture capital firm A91 Partners.

 

The company plans to use the investments towards improving customer travel experience, upgrading fleet management technology platform, and providing deeper and wider coverage to Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The company is on track to double its fleet and targets a ₹1000 crore turnover by next year.

 

"IntrCity SmartBus continues to scale-up organically and profitably and is projected to maintain its 50 per cent year-over-year growth this year,” Kapil Raizada, co-founder and president, IntrCity SmartBus told Business Standard. “This new capital enables us to further double-down on our vision to transform the bus-travel landscape in India and expand our network to more Tier-II and Tier-III cities.”

 

IntrCity SmartBus is an asset-less bus network and provides safe and standardised travel options around India’s long-distance routes, operating across over 630 routes in 15 states. Its companion brand, RailYatri, is a popular digital platform for train travel in India, providing a simplified train ticket booking experience along with comprehensive trip data and insights, serving more than 12 million users monthly.

 

“The investment will be used to further raise the bar on customer satisfaction, operational excellence and service expansion,” said Manish Rathi, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), IntrCity SmartBus. “This investment will also help our operator-partners to grow and monetise their asset portfolio faster with us.”

 

Much of this is driven by the company’s technology backbone. IntrCity has developed a suite of proprietary tools,  including an operator dashboard, crew app, and IoT-enabled fleet analytics system, that help manage daily operations across its expanding network. These platforms enable real-time tracking, accurate ETA visibility, dynamic route management, and centralised monitoring of every journey. From automated luggage management to predictive maintenance insights, the company’s tech stack is designed to bring efficiency to a category that has traditionally lacked both.

 

“They have built a trusted, pan-India brand through exceptional quality, consistency and customer service,” said Gautam Mago, general partner at A91 Partners. “This provides a platform to build a category-defining leader in inter-city mobility. We look forward to working with them to grow the company to even greater heights.”

 

In India, the outstation travel market remains largely untapped by organised players. Given the country’s huge population and rapid urbanisation, there is an increasing demand for various modes of transportation, including personal and public.

 

India’s expanding highway network is fueling a surge in the country’s intercity travel sector, particularly the outstation bus market. The segment is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 10 per cent to 13 per cent between fiscals 2020 (FY20) and 2025, according to a report by IntrCity SmartBus and consulting firm 1Lattice.

 

The report estimated India’s overall outstation travel market at $66 billion in FY20, with bus travel accounting for about $30.3 billion, or roughly 45% of the total. While the pandemic slowed demand in FY21 and FY22, the rebound since then has been strong.

 

Much of the sector’s recent momentum is being powered by full-stack technology aggregators, such as IntrCity SmartBus and Zingbus. These players are using end-to-end digital platforms to streamline operations, improve reliability, and enhance passenger experience — changes that are reshaping one of India’s most vital modes of intercity transport, the report notes.

 

While India’s roads and highways have improved significantly, the country still lacks adequate bus infrastructure, especially around cities, according to Raizada of IntrCity SmartBus.

 

Despite better vehicles and connectivity, poor bus terminals and facilities remain a major barrier to public transport adoption, he noted. Raizada pointed to the imbalance in public spending, saying that far more money goes into building airports than bus terminals, even though bus travel serves a much larger population.

 

“If taxpayer money can fund airports, it should also fund bus ports,” he said. He added that better terminals, parking, rain shelters, clean food, and drinking water are essential to make bus travel more appealing. Without these, he warned, car travel may overtake buses due to infrastructure gaps, not preference.

 

He urged that transit points be developed with metro and taxi connectivity to make bus travel more convenient.