Intrcity by RailYatri raises ₹100 crore

IntrCity by RailYatri, the bus aggregator brand of the ticket booking company, has raised ₹100 crore in its latest funding round, led by Nandan Nilekani and Samsung Venture Investment coming on board as a strategic investor. This round also saw participation from other existing investors — Omidyar Network and Blume Ventures.

The intercity mobility start-up has so far raised $30 million, said a company release.

The company had one consumer brand, RailYatri, during earlier rounds of funding. A year back, the parent brand was renamed IntrCity by RailYatri. With this, the company has two consumer brands — IntrCity SmartBus and RailYatri. The Current round of fund-raising is to scale up IntrCity SmartBus and continue to invest in technology behind RailYatri.

Manish Rathi, CEO and Co-founder, IntrCity by RailYatri, said, “The latest investments will help us further expand our IntrCity SmartBus network and enhance our tech platform. We intend to expand our SmartBus fleet to 300 from the current 84 in the next few months and are on track for a managed fleet of 2,000 by 2022.”

Kapil Raizada, Co-founder, IntrCity by RailYatri, said, “We have grown (by over) 500 per cent in the last year with the entire growth costs being met from our internal revenue generation, and we are projecting 30 per cent growth over the next three consecutive years. We have on-boarded a number of top operators on our platform in the past 18 months across North, South and West India, which coupled with our capability to acquire intercity travellers, has helped fuel growth on a fundamentally strong economic model.”

Complete traveller experience

IntrCity by RailYatri is a player in the multi-modal intercity mobility segment and has revolutionised intercity bus travel through the IntrCity SmartBus brand of buses. The unique full stack marketplace model provides a complete traveller experience with several bus operators as its marketplace partners.

Currently, the brand is running a fleet of 84 buses across 18 hubs, covering 65 destinations and serving nearly 4 lakh travellers a month.

To ensure the safety of the passengers, the buses have CCTV cameras, GPS, an AI-enabled driver alert system and alcohol tests for the drivers. All the buses are constantly monitored from a central command centre, which tracks and monitors the buses.

Nandan Nilekani, one of the early backers of this venture, said, “..IntrCity RailYatri... is on a successful path to create the scale which a leader in inter-city mobility deserves. This initiative will be of great benefit and convenience to millions of domestic intercity travellers.”