The startup which raised $42.2 M funding and will be giving tough competition to the transportation apps

The startup which raised $42.2 M funding and will be giving tough competition to the transportation apps

Today's story is of two IIT Graduates, their idea, planning, execution and success.

Amit Singh, an IIT Delhi passed out and Deepanshu Malviya, an IIT Kanpur passed out met each other while working at Jabong. Having that entrepreneurship soul, both invented an idea to solve an attention seeking problem. In the year, 2014 Delhi Government was trying its best to remove the tag from itself as one of the world's most polluted cities by controlling the number of private cars used every day. This duo came up with the ideaof 'Shuttl', an easy commute for daily office goers.

Amit Singh, co-founder of Gurugram-based has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Amazon Fund and Dentsu Ventures, told “As cars go up, we try to build more roads and flyovers. But what is equally important is to solve the problem from a demand side. And that is by means of encouraging people to use less cars or opt for public transport.”

Problems :
The number of private cars was increasing.
People were spending their valuable time on the way.
It was contributing to the city's pollution.
People were helpless due to the high price of cabs.

The MBAs solved this huge problem with a perfect solution. They invented 'Shuttl' in 2014 with just two rented Toyota Innovas. They went to the bus stoppages of Gurugram and approached the passengers to try out Shuttl. From two to 100 rides a day, they made it within a single week. They got $3 million funding in the first month from Sequoia capital. Again they got $20 million funding by Sequoia and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

In 2015 Ola and Uber were having their shared service in the market. But that wasn't able to cover all classes of economy. When they're busy with cab market, this duo on boarded 350 bus vendors. They knew that increase of cars with the increase of passengers was not the solution. So, they tried to provide space to more passengers in a single transport. It has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Amazon Fund and Dentsu Ventures.

They're now in 7+ cities with more than 55000 rides a day.

How to use Shuttl :

Shuttl provides an easy, comfortable and timely journey regularly.The app is available in the playstore. You need to install and create an account there.

Select your pick up and drop off location just like Ola, Uber. It will show you their availability. You can also check the estimated time to reach your destination.

You will get all the details about the vehicle before 30 minutes from pickup. You can also cancel or reschedule it according to your comfort.

Why people love Shuttl :

It provides rides from home to office starting with as low as ₹50.

It provides safe, smart and cashless travel with live-tracking, easy booking and assured seat in comfortable coaches.

It gives sress-free, affordable and comfortable commute to work and back home.

It also offers first three free check rides and referral bonus to encourage more usage.

Profit Model :

It runs on revenue model. It offers sharing commute more than 8 lacs rides a day. Apart from Delhi the company operates in the cities like Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, and Pune and on the process of expanding.

Top 3 Competitors :

ZipGo

ZipGo has been one of Shuttl's top competitors. ZipGo is a Private company that was founded in 2014 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Like Shuttl, ZipGo also competes in the Road Transportation sector. Compared to Shuttl, ZipGo has 159 fewer employees.

Easycommute

Easy Commute is seen as one of Shuttl's biggest rivals. Easy Commute is a Private company that was founded in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh in 2015. Easy Commute operates in the Application Software industry. Easy Commute has 165 fewer employees vs. Shuttl.

Cityflo

Cityflo is perceived as one of Shuttl's biggest rivals. Cityflo was founded in Mumbai, Maharashtra} in 2015. Like Shuttl, Cityflo also operates in the Road Transportation sector.

Others : TravelSmart, MeriBus, Chalo, Limo, Carrotery etc.

Popularity :

Downloaded : 1 million +
Facebook : 173k followers
Instagram : 2665 followers
Twitter : 5000 followers

Approx Annual Revenue : 1Million $
Approx Manpower Strength : 392

Possibilities :

It's huge. The huge crowd attached with bus can become a dominant market in transport area. There are no giant competitor till date. If one can use it properly, 80% chances are that it will go upward. Amit says, “Owing to infinite demand, the possibility is very high in this segment. We are pioneer in the segment and building a high-end technology platform to offer our services. As the platform becomes more high-tech and mature, we’ll become more formidable in the segment.”

Please connect at soumidas2017@gmail.com if you want your start up to be spoken by me.