India-based bike taxi service provider Rapido has secured $52m in a series C round backed by automotive manufacturer Yamaha, oil and gas producer Shell and human resources consulting firm Positive Moves Consulting, TechCrunch has reported.
The round also featured investment firm Westbridge Capital, venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners, family office Everblue Management, as well as individual investors Kunal Shah, Amarjit Singh Batra and Pawan Munjal. Shell was represented in the round by its corporate venturing unit, Shell Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Rapido operates a mobile app for booking bike taxi services across approximately 100 cities in India. Aravind Sanka, co-founder of Rapido, said the company will use the funding to hire new staff, complete strategic investments and broaden its technology stack.
The series C round has increased Rapido’s total funding to over $130m. The company had raised $43.4m of series C funding by May 2021, according to an Inc42 report citing regulatory filings.
Westbridge Capital led the initial tranche of the series C, while vehicle and equipment rental business Motherson Lease Solutions, Konark Trust, Everblue Bangladesh, QED Innovation Labs and MMPL Trust also took part.
WestBridge Capital led a $54.6m series B round for Rapido in August 2019 that included Bace Capital, Shunwei Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.
The business collected $11.2m of series A funding in a round led by Nexus Venture Partners in April 2019, following a $7.4m funding round also described as series A three months earlier.
That latter round featured Integrated Capital Growth, Astarc Ventures, India Technology Fund, Motherson Lease Solutions, individual investor Ka Wing Kevin Kwong and 20 individual investors.
Investment management firm Skycatcher and fund services provider Thompson Taraz had supplied $329,000 to the company in November 2017, after a $422,000 round led by Battery Road Digital and backed by Astarc Ventures and an unspecified India-based technology fund in July of that year.
In 2016, Rapido raised an undisclosed amount of funding from AdvantEdge Partners, Astarc Ventures, Tessellate Ventures and assorted private backers.