Rapido becomes unicorn with $200 million funding, enters 4-wheeler market

Mobility startup Rapido has raised $200 million in a funding round led by its long-time investor WestBridge Capital, pushing the company’s valuation to $1.1 billion, making it a unicorn, according to a report by The Economic Times.

Rapido’s chief executive officer (CEO), Aravind Sanka, said that the fresh capital will be directed towards expanding their newly launched four-wheeler taxi service, which will compete directly with Ola and Uber. Existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, backed by Swiggy, also contributed to the funding round, alongside new investors Think Investments and Invus Opportunities, based in New York, the report said.

In addition, Rapido is venturing into the fast-growing quick commerce sector, leveraging its two-wheeler fleet for hyperlocal deliveries.

The report quoted Sanka as saying, “The latest fundraise has come on the back of strong growth that we’ve clocked over the last two years. In this period, we’ve grown our top line over 12 times... A few years back, we were just a two-wheeler player, but now we’re a significant three-wheeler operator. We are also making huge inroads in the four-wheeler ride-sharing market."

The CEO further said that Rapido handles 2.3 to 2.5 million daily orders across various platforms, with around 7 per cent coming from its business-to-business (B2B) segment. In the B2B space, Rapido supports Swiggy by fulfilling food delivery orders during periods of lower bike-taxi demand. Additionally, it has joined the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as a logistics partner.

Similar to ONDC, Rapido also provides auto-rickshaw and four-wheeler cab services through a subscription model. In this system, driver partners pay a fixed daily or weekly fee rather than a commission for each ride.

The report quoted him as saying that the company is planning to broaden its categories. “The Four-wheelers category is pretty new for us, so we’ll be aggressive there. In some cities, we’re already larger than one of the incumbents in four-wheelers, and now we want to make that journey and become a significant number 2 player.”