Bengaluru-based bike rental start-up Bounce raises over US$ 100 million in funding

Bounce, a Bengaluru-based start-up, raised an additional Rs 746.33 crore (US$ 105 million) in its Series-D funding round.

According to the TechCrunch report, this funding was co-led by existing investors Eduardo Saverin from B Capital and Accel Partners India. The new amount raised places Bounce's valuation at just over US$ 500 million. In last June, the company's valuation was US$ 200 million after its Series-C funding round.

The other investors were Sequoia Capital India, Maverik Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge and Omidyar Network which also participated in the funding round. As per the reports, after this latest round of funding, Mr Kabir Narang, General Partner and Co-head, Asia, at B Capital Group will be joining the board.

The bike-rental start-up, formerly known as Metro Bikes, let its customers rent a bike anywhere in the city at any point in time using its patented key-less technology. This system is based on GPS tracking. It let drivers to rent the bike anywhere in the city with no set pick up or drop point. Presently, Bounce offers its dockless bike rental service only in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

As per the reports, Bounce clocks over 1.2 lakh rides each day.

The start-up had deployed its own operations and team in each city as per the Bounce's initial concepts. However, the strategy was difficult in terms of scaling up within their current investment. Thus, company changed its strategy in recent quarters and has now tied up with hundreds of mom-and-pop stores in each city, who run their own operations providing docked scooters on rent, according to a TechCrunch report.

The company plans to expand its operations to more cities in India with the new amount raised. The company also plans to invest in building sustainable solutions and will launch electric vehicles in future.

So far, Bounce had raised US$ 72 million in its Series-C round of funding including US$ 4.45 million from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal's BAC Acquisitions.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.