On-demand ride provider Ola has supplied $100m in funding for India-based scooter rental service Vogo, Financial Times reported today.
Founded in 2016, Vogo operates a scooter sharing service that is currently present in the Indian cities of Hyderabad and Bengaluru, allowing users to book and pay for a motorised scooter through a mobile app. Users are also refunded for any fuel they buy during its use.
The company has a fleet of some 2,000 scooters spread across the cities and the Ola funding will be used to increase that to some 100,000 by the end of 2020.
Ola had previously led a series A round for Vogo in August this year sized between $6m and $7m, investing together with Matrix Partners India, Stellaris Venture Partners and undisclosed angel investors.
The corporate plans to integrate the Vogo service into its own offering, meaning one of its scooters will be able to be booked through the Ola app, which has 150 million registered users.
Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and chief executive of Ola, said: “Ola is committed to building a robust mobility ecosystem in India. Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multimodal network for first-last mile connectivity.”
The round represents the fourth time a scooter rental startup has raised a nine-figure round this year, following the $100m Bird closed in March and the $300m it received the following month, as well as the $335m secured by Lime in July.
