 "Image courtesy Baxi Taxi's Facebook page")
Product X – soap, for example – has always been used to do Y – clean things. It has managed to infiltrate the depths of the market with years of effort from a series of giant, global players who are all making a ton of money off its sales. Is there any way to take advantage of the infiltration, create another industry, and start something new – infusing the soap with nutrients to dissolve in polluted rivers, perhaps – with the same product?
Ashutosh Johri and Manu Rana, the founders of Baxi Taxi, a ride-hailing app for two-wheelers, would say yes. In their case, the product is in a category for which India holds the second rank in the world – two-wheeler scooters.
As of December 1, 2015, the Indian state of Haryana officially allowed two-wheelers to operate as commercial vehicles in the state, making it the second state to do so after Goa. The new-found freedom has arrived partially as a result of the founders’ hard work – which, as the team explains, has nothing to do with the pace of the government.
Baxi just announced a $1.5 million round of funding from investors like Manish Kheterpal, partner at Canaan Partners, and Alok Mittal, CEO of Indifi Technologies and started operations on December 1, which is coincidentally also Gurgaon’s ‘Car Free Day’.
