When you rent a car out of the city for one way travel, paying for the return trip is an accepted norm. But what if you shell out the cost for just the one-way ride?

Delhi-based outstation cab aggregator, InstaCab is looking to capitalise on this opportunity. According to Abhishek Negi, Co-founder, InstaCab, the idea is to provide inter-city travel by offering vehicles at half the rates (than the market) for a one-way journey.

“The idea is to bring down the inter-city travel cost while ensuring continuous demand for the cab from both the cities,” he told BusinessLine .

One-way travel fares (in a hatchback) between Delhi to Agra will be as low as ₹2,600 if booked through InstaCab in comparison to ₹6,000 charged in the market, Negi claimed.

Scaling up InstaCab, which began operations in 2014, offers three types of cars: mainly hatchbacks, sedans and multi-utility vehicles.

With a fleet of 2,100 drivers (the aggregator operates in a market-place model and does not own cars), its operations are spread across 30-odd routes covering mostly North India and include places like Delhi NCR, Agra, Rajasthan and parts of Punjab. Another 20-odd routes are expected to be added by this month when operations in Punjab and Uttarakhand take off. The first five months of this year (January to May) has seen nearly 600 outstation trips with average size being to the tune of ₹4,000.

Introducing new booking options and tie-ups with payment gateways (apart from cash payments) are a part of InstaCab’s future strategies.

On the cards are extension of its booking app from the Google Play Store (Android) to the iOS and Window’s platforms. Bookings can be made through the Web and call centre too. InstaCab has started discussions with private equity (PE) funds, Negi said. Around ₹1.5-2 crore is expected to be raised in the coming days, probably by the end of this month.

“We are hopeful of closing the discussions for the first round of funding soon,” he added.

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