Electrifying mobility: How entrepreneurs changed tack to survive pandemic

To survive the Covid-induced downturn, bike-sharing start-up Bounce changed its strategy and jumped on the EV bandwagon

In 2019, Bounce became the world’s fastest-growing bike-sharing firm, doing 60,000 rides per day. That number went up to 120,000 rides a day by 2020 and the Bengaluru-based firm’s valuation crossed $500 million after it raised $105 million.
 
The start-up, founded in 2014, was scaling on a par with global players, including US-based scooter-rental companies Lime and Bird. It had plans to expand in the country and also to get into markets abroad.
 
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. As the government anno­unced restrictions to contain the spread, its users, mainly employees and students, were locked down in their homes.

 

Bounce laid off employees and the co-founders — Vivekananda Hallekere, Varun Agni and Anil G — took a 100 per cent pay cut.
 
Changing strategy
 
To survive the Covid-induced downturn, the firm changed its strategy and jumped on the electric vehicle (EV) bandwagon. “We have been spending a lot of our time building capabilities around EVs,” said Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO and co-founder, Bounce. “That is the biggest thing we have done during the lockdown.”
 
This bold move has paid off. Bounce recently reached a significant milestone, crossing 6 million km on its EV fleet in over 15 months.

 
Bounce currently owns one of the largest high-speed EV fleets in the country. The company is operating thousands of scooters, with 50 per cent of its fleet being electric.
 
“Now we are working on converting our entire fleet into EVs,” said Hallekere.
 
This includes retrofitting existing internal combustion engine scooters into electric. The start-up is working with the government so that the retrofit scooters can also get subsidies and other benefits.
 
The total number of Bounce EV trips is now over one million and it expects to do 100,000 rides per day soon.
 
However, the firm is also tapping into new users and segments, where it is already seeing an increasing demand amid the pandemic. The company is in talks with e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart to provide EVs as part of their delivery fleet.

 
Amazon has committed to include 10,000 EVs as part of its delivery fleet by 2025 in India. Flipkart will deploy more than 25,000 EVs by 2030. This is in line with the Walmart-owned firm’s public commitment to transition to EVs across its city logistics fleet.
 
Battery swapping
 
Another big opportunity that Bounce is betting on is scaling up its battery swapping infrastructure. The company plans to open it up to everyone, which includes businesses like Amazon and Flipkart for their delivery fleet as well as consumers using various brands of EVs.
 
Battery swapping is a process in which a drained battery is exchanged for a fully charged one at a battery swapping station. A mobile app would help the users to locate the nearest battery, see the amount of charge and swap it.

 
“We can take it across India,” said Hallekere.
 
Bounce has already set up battery swapping stations, under its subsidiary Zuink, to power the electric transition of its vehicles across Bengaluru, Mysuru and Vijaywada.
 
The company says it is a low cost, high density swapping infrastructure. Zuink is also able to cater to demand from B2B, B2C and other fleet operators. The entire swap process is automated, driven by the Internet of Things technology.
 
The battery swapping stations are well distributed across the city. A swapping station is available within 1-2 km from wherever the user is riding. It started building this infrastructure in early 2019. But it is not the only player doing it.

 
Joining the race
 
In April, Ola Electric revealed its plans to set up the world’s largest electric two-wheeler charging network.
 
The SoftBank-backed firm plans to provide charging solutions to all its electric two-wheeler customers. It unveiled the Ola Hypercharger Network, the charging network for its upcoming two-wheeler products starting with the Ola Scooter to be launched in the coming months. However, this charging network won’t be available to other EV players and only the customers of Ola Electric.
 
Also, Chetan Maini’s Sun Mobility, a leading provider of electric mobility solutions and services, has plans to set up 100 battery swapping stations for EVs in Bengaluru by the end of 2021.

 
The kirana connect
 
Over 350 kirana stores across Bengaluru have partnered Bounce to set up battery swapping stations, helping them earn additional income. These have enabled over 150,000 battery swaps.