Bengaluru-based start-up Bounce, on Thursday, announced that it had raised an additional $105 million (₹746.33 crore) in its Series-D funding round.
The funding was co-led by existing investors Eduardo Saverin from B Capital and Accel Partners India, TechCrunch reported. The new amount raised places Bounce’s valuation at just over $500 million. Bounce was valued at $200 million last June after its Series-C funding round.
Other investors including Sequoia Capital India, Maverik Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge and Omidyar Network had also participated in the funding round. After this latest round of funding, Kabir Narang, General Partner and Co-head, Asia, at B Capital Group will be joining the board, Inc42 reported.
Change in strategy
The bike-rental start-up, formerly known as Metro Bikes, allows customers to rent a bike anywhere in the city at any point in time using its patented key-less technology. The system is based on GPS tracking. Drivers can rent the bike anywhere in the city with no set pick up or drop point. Currently, Bounce provides its dockless bike rental service only in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Bounce clocks over 1.2 lakh rides each day, reports say.
According to Bounce’s initial concepts, the start-up had deployed its own operations and team in each city. The strategy, however, was difficult in terms of scaling up within their current investment. Bounce has changed its strategy in recent quarters. It has now tied up with hundreds of mom-and-pop stores in each city, who run their own operations providing docked scooters on rent, according to a TechCrunch report.
Future expansion
With the new amount raised, Bounce will expand its operations to more cities in India. The company will also invest in building sustainable solutions and will introduce electric vehicles in future, according to an Inc42 report.
Bounce had raised $72 million in its Series-C round of funding including $4.45 million from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal’s BAC Acquisitions, according to previous reports.
Source: The Hindu Businessline