Comments
Snow Leopard Ventures, the venture capital arm of diversified conglomerate Kirloskar Group, is likely to lead a $10-million funding round for auto app Jugnoo.
According to sources, the Series B round will also see participation from a consortium of Silicon Valley investment firms.
Snow Leopard, launched in 2013, has so far invested in three starts-up Voylla, QuikWallet and Jugnoo.
The VC along with mobile commerce and payment firm Paytm has recently pumped in $5 million in the Chandigarh-based hyperlocal on-demand transport and delivery services provider.
Neither Snow Leopard’s founder Chris Kolenaty nor Jugnoo responded to mails send by BusinessLine on this development.
Started by Samar Singla in November 2014, Jugnoo has so far raised about $9 million.
The company is one of the pioneers to enter the auto aggregation model.
It ties up with rickshaw drivers as logistics partners to offer three different services such as Jugnoo Autos on Demand.
Auto aggregation model With a 40-member team consisting of IITians and IIMs, Jugnoo has so far aggregated over 5,000 autos.
It claims that an auto driver is doing 20 rides on its platform at present against six rides a day early this year.
It is competing with OlaCabs and AutonCab in the auto segment.
Of late, the auto hailing segment has been witnessing lot of action, global taxi hailing app Uber that launched the auto service seven months ago shut its service this month, thus, raising questions on the viability of the auto aggregation model.
However, Samar Singla, in an earlier interaction had said, “It’s a victory for us that a global player couldn’t succeed in the game that we have been leading for months now.
“It also validates the fact that the company (Uber) was unable to understand the regulated auto market.
“They are good at taxi business and auto is a very local business and is unique to India.”
Preferred choice Singla is very optimistic about the auto market, which is pegged at $12 billion with about 30 million vehicles and is growing at 10 per cent annually.
Compared to this, the taxi market is at $6 billion with a mere two million cabs.
Auto is a very low ticket size but volume-driven market, Singla said, adding that an average ride would cost ₹60-70 compared to ₹150 for a taxi ride, and at the same time, it is a high margin business as autos in most of the metros run on CNG compared to taxis that still run on petrol or diesel.
Jugnoo’s founder said it has understood the problems and challenges that exist in this segment.
His company is planning to double its presence in about 40 cities by mid next year.
The plan is to tap the large middle-class section who would prefer auto over cab as they are cheaper, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.