New Delhi, June 10 -- Ride-hailing platform Rapido is in the process of raising Rs 125 crore ($14.6 million) from US-based venture capital firm Nexus Ventures, nearly five months after it secured Rs 250 crore from global technology investor Prosus, VCCircle has learned.
The latest fundraise comes at a time when the company is preparing to enter the food delivery space and is also reportedly setting up a fintech vertical.
Unlike Swiggy and Zomato-which charge restaurants a commission of 16-30% per order-Rapido plans to offer a fixed fee per order. It will reportedly charge a fixed delivery fee of Rs 25 per order, plus taxes, for orders above Rs 100. It has also reportedly asked restaurant partners to maintain price parity between in-store and online orders.
In September last year, Rapido raised $200 million (Rs 1,711 crore) in a Series E round that valued it at about $1.1 billion. Its existing investor WestBridge Capital-which has also invested in several homegrown companies such as Meesho, Freshworks, PhysicsWallah, and Leadsquared-had led the round.
The funding from Prosus early this year was also part of the extended Series E funding round.
The company also counts TVS Motor Company, Shell Ventures, Nexus Ventures, Yamaha India, CRED founder Kunal Shah, Spotify India's CEO Amarjit Singh Batra, and Positive Moves Consulting among its investors.
Rapido was founded by Aravind Sanka, Rishikesh SR and Pavan Guntupalli in 2015 as a bike-taxi service. It has since expanded its offerings to include auto-rickshaws and cabs. Its app offers services in multiple languages, including Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English.
In FY24, Rapido's revenue from operations grew to Rs 648 crore from Rs 443 crore in FY23. It also reduced its losses by 45% to Rs 371 crore from Rs 675 crore in FY23, according to VCCEdge.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.