Ola to invest $100 mn in Indian scooter sharing startup Vogo; fund to be used for fleet expansion

Indian ride-hailing firm Ola will invest $100 million in Vogo, a domestic scooter sharing start-up, and add the company’s fleet of two-wheelers to the Ola app to broaden the range of vehicles it offers, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday. Vogo, which provides services in the southern Indian cities of Bengaluru and Hyderabad, will use the money to expand its fleet by 100,000 scooters. It did not disclose how many scooters it currently has but said that more than 100,000 users have commuted for over 20 million kilometers using its two-wheelers. “Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in the country,” Ola co-founder and chief executive officer Bhavish Aggarwal said in the statement. [caption id=“attachment_2334664” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] Mewnwhile in August, Vogo raised funding led by Ola and Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal, reported PTI. The Series A round also saw participation from Stellaris Venture Partners, Matrix Partners India, Aprameya Radhakrishna (TaxiForSure founder), Rajesh Yabaji (Blackbuck founder) and Mayank Bidawatka (Goodbox founder), Vogo said in a statement. While the company declined to comment on the transaction size, industry watchers said the funding is to the tune of $5-7 million. Vogo is a dockless scooter rental company that lets customers rent scooters for short one-way trips. The company’s app allows users to locate, unlock and pick up scooters and bikes at one point, and drop it off at a different point. Vogo scooters come with an OTP-based IoT sensor which allows customers to access the key without the need for any human intervention, and start their ride. The company is present in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It plans to add over 1,000 pick-up points across these two cities in the coming year. “Our goal is to make a Vogo scooter available in every nook and corner of the country that is plagued with issues like traffic congestion, pollution and growing population,” Vogo founder and CEO Anand Ayyadurai said. Using the Vogo mobile app, more than 27,000 users have commuted for over six million kms, the statement said. — With agency inputs