How Essel Group left mobility start-up ZipGo high and dry on funding

ZipGo was founded in 2014 as cab aggregator Taxipixi, a year later, it rebranded itself as ZipGo, an intra-city bus service. It raised $52 million between 2014 and 2018

Last week, emails landed in the inboxes of customers of ZipGo in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and the National Capital Region, informing the recipients that the Bengaluru-based mobility start-up would not be working in their cities from the beginning of this month.

Emails like this from start-ups are rare. Customers rarely blink before switching to a competitor. 

Start-ups winding up operations are not uncommon though. But, ZipGo is different. In August last year, the company announced that it raised Rs 300 crore from Essel Green Mobility. A few months later, it announced that it was acquiring Supreme Trans