Dockless bike-sharing app Mobycy has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Venture Catalysts. Prominent investors from Venture Catalysts network Mr. Syed Faiz, Gaurav Juneja, Ayush Agarwal, Bhaskar Raju and many others participated in round.
Founded in November 2017, Akash Gupta, Rashi Agarwal and Anuj Patel, the startup’s objective is to fill the desperate need in many of the country’s cities of last mile connectivity due to which a majority of people prefer to use their own vehicles, leading to clogging of the roads and the resultant pollution. By introducing this concept of providing an easy way to reach their destination after they get out of a public transport, train, bus or metro service, Mobycy is trying to be part of the $1 billion business. And it wants to do it the green way.
“With our seed round of funds last year in December, we were managing 1.25 lac+ monthly rides on 1,200+ bikes across 3 cities (Gurgaon, Noida, Kota) and many universities. Within one year, we have been recognised by the DIPP StartUpIndia, TechSparks, Niti Aayog & WRI as best mobility startup of India. Now, with VCats displaying its confidence and support in our business model by backing us financially and strategically, we are looking at further amplifying this growth with our pivot into e-scooters and e-bikes in a big way and capturing the high-growth market along with expansion in current cities. India needs shared electric 2-wheelers and Mobycy’s focus is to continue working with innovations to remain as the best shared mobility bikeshare company of India,” Akash Gupta, Co-Founder of Mobycy said in a statement.
Mobycy has fashioned itself somewhat on the lines of Uber, which says its objective is urban mobility and it will seek every method available to help people reach from point A to point B by the fastest way. Only, in the case of Mobycy, they are not into cars but only 2-wheelers. They started off with just bicycles and have now added e-bikes and e-scooters. They would want to promote only green initiatives in order to keep India’s cities clean and pollution-free.
The way their service works, is customers download the Mobycy app and locate bikes close to where they are. They can unlock the bike through a scan of the QR code and be on their way. It’s a dockless service. Once they reach their destination, they can leave the bike and Mobycy will track the vehicle through GPS and other ‘smart’ devices and the next customer can drive off from there.
Headquartered in Gurgaon, Mobycy is present only in Gurgaon, Noida and Kota (Rajasthan). The funds now raised through Venture Catalysts may be deployed in expanding the service beyond these towns. They have 1200+ bikes as of now and have recorded over 1.25 lac rides a month. Their app has been downloaded by around 175,000 people so far.
Mobycy has also managed to enter into exclusive MOUs with Governments Universities & Tech parks along with corporate tie-ups with corporates like HCL, Tech Mahindra; metro companies like Jaipur Metro, Rapid Metro; city administrations like Kota, Udaipur; universities like Chitkara and Manav Rachna University.