How an American launched Zoomcar in India, and now plans to go international

Zoomcar is India's biggest app-based car rental as less than 10% of city residents own cars, reports Tech in Asia

In 2011, Greg Moran spent three months traveling across India, talking to thousands of people for what he says was primary research for his fledgling startup idea: to launch a car rental service in Asia’s fastest growing economy.
 

The New York resident decided to marry his passion for environment and numbers, and launched Zoomcar in India – where less than 10% of city residents own cars, and public transport can often be a nightmare.
 

 “For the first 15 months we were just in Bangalore and then we launched in Pune, and then we went to Delhi,” said Greg.
 

 

“Going global is the next big thing. Not this year, but I think 18 months out that makes sense,” he said.

Nothing’s locked in, but countries under consideration are Indonesia, the Philippines, or Nigeria and other African markets.
 

American in India
 

Zoomcar is India’s biggest app-based car rental, along the lines of Hertz or Avis, but working entirely online. The company’s fleet of 2,000 cars is more than double the size of its nearest rival, Myles, which commands about 800 cars.
 

Three years on, Zoomcar counts Ford, Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, and Empire Angels as investors. It rents out cars including luxury sedans like BMWs, hatchbacks like Ford Figos, SUVs like Mahindra Scorpios, and even electric cars like the Mahindra Reva E2O.
 

Growth and changes
 

Zoomcar now services 12 cities and plans to be in 25 cities in the next four to five months. Fleet size is expected to go up from 2,000 cars to 10,000 cars by the end of 2017, and 25,000 cars by the time 2018 ends.
 

The company plans to break even by the end of the current fiscal year.

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This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here