Mass transport tracking app provider Chalo has acquired Shuttl, an India-based, corporate-backed shuttle bus provider in an all-cash transaction of undisclosed size, the Economic Times reported yesterday.
Shuttl’s shareholders have all exited, sources privy to the matter told ET. The company had raised about $120m in equity funding altogether.
Founded in 2015, Shuttl runs fleets totalling some 2,000 buses across Indian cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai. It also had operations in the Thai capital of Bangkok before the covid-19 pandemic began.
The company secured $3.3m in series C funding from conglomerate Sojitz and marketing agency Compound Partners in February 2021 at a $125m valuation, after receiving $8m from quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG)’s SIG Global India Fund the month before.
Automotive manufacturer Toyota’s trading subsidiary, Toyota Tsusho, had joined its Mirai Creation Fund II affiliate, run by asset manager Sparx Group, and unnamed other investors in an $18m tranche in November 2019 pushing Shuttl’s series C round to $36m.
Shuttl had raised $5m from New Atlantic in April 2019, a deal which came in the wake of a $7.2m round featuring Times Internet, a subsidiary of media group Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), in addition to Sequoia Capital, SCI Investment and Lightspeed India Partners the previous month.
Trifecta Capital injected $1.4m into the company in December 2018, following an $11m round five months earlier featuring BCC, e-commerce firm Amazon and Dentsu Ventures, a vehicle for marketing group Dentsu, which invested together with Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Ambiga Subramanian.
Times Internet, Sequoia Capital and an unnamed additional investor had provided $20m in series A funding for Shuttl in 2015, Sequoia having joined a host of individuals to supply $3m a few months earlier.
