India-based bus aggregation service Shuttl has raised $42m including $6.1m from Toyota Tsusho, the trading subsidiary of automotive manufacturer Toyota, Moneycontrol reported on Tuesday, citing a regulatory filing.
Financial services firm SMBC Trust Bank provided another $12.3m in return for a 6% share of the company, with Toyota Tsusho’s stake sized at 3%.
Shuttl runs an online platform that allows users to book air-conditioned bus rides across a series of established routes in six Indian cities. Users can track the progress of their bus through the company’s app, cutting waiting times in the process.
The latest round follows a $5m investment from venture capital firm New Atlantic in April this year that comes after $7.2m from Times Internet, a subsidiary of media group Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), as well as Sequoia Capital, SCI Investments and Lightspeed India Partners the month before.
Trifecta Capital had provided $1.4m for the company in January 2019, following $11m from BCC, e-commerce firm Amazon, marketing firm Dentsu’s corporate VC arm, Dentsu Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Ambiga Subramanian in July 2018.
Times Internet had previously joined Sequoia Capital and an undisclosed international investor to supply $20m in series A funding for Shuttl in 2015, following $3m from Sequoia Capital and various angel investors earlier in the year.
According to the filing, Times Internet owns nearly 7% of the company while Amazon holds approximately 4.5%. Its other major shareholders are CEO Amit Singh (13.2%), Lightspeed India Partners (13.1%), CI Investments (11.8%), Sequoia Capital (10.8%) and co-founder Deepanshu Malviya (8.3%).
