India-based bus aggregation service Shuttl has increased its series C round to $36m, raising $18m from carmaker Toyota’s trading arm Toyota Tsusho and Mirai Creation Fund II, TechCrunch reported on Monday.
The round included unnamed additional investors. Reports last month suggested Shuttl had reached its $42m target for the round, with Toyota Tsusho injecting $6.1m and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation supplying $12.3m as a trustee of Mirai, which it formed with Toyota and Sparx Group.
Founded in 2015, Shuttl operates a network of approximately 2,000 buses in six cities across India, enabling passengers to book rides through a dedicated app, and board at specified stops.
Features of the service include an emergency button in the app that allows a passenger to force a stop at the nearest station, requiring drivers and passengers to identify themselves before a journey, and compelling drivers to take an alcohol test.
Shuttl is targeting a valuation of $213m for the round’s close, according to CNBC. The series C funding has been allocated to an expansion drive that will take the company into more Indian cities.
Shigeru Harada, chief operating officer of Toyota Tsusho’s automotive division, said: “Shuttl has taken the lead in solving for traffic congestion and air pollution through a technology-enabled mass transport solution.
“We look forward to work together with them to disseminate relatively energy efficient mobility-as-a-service solutions, such as Shuttl’s app-based mass transportation service, through our global network.”
Shuttl collected $5m in funding from New Atlantic in April 2019, adding to $7.2m from Times Internet, the digital subsidiary of media group Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), as well as Sequoia Capital, SCI Investment and Lightspeed India Partners a month earlier. It picked up $1.4m from Trifecta Capital three months before.
BCC, e-commerce group Amazon and Dentsu Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of marketing agency Dentsu, took part in an $11m funding round for the company in July 2018, alongside Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Ambiga Subramanian.
Shuttl had received $20m in series A financing from Times Internet, Sequoia Capital and an undisclosed international backer in 2015 , adding to $3m provided by Sequoia and assorted angel investors earlier the same year.
