Rapido enters into cab service; to compete with Ola, Uber

Rapido, popular for its low-cost two-wheeler ride-hailing service, today raised the competition in the urban mobility space by announcing its expansion into intra-city cab service, dubbed Rapido Cabs. The company has started offering the service in three cities - Delhi NCR, Bangalore and Hyderabad - with around 100,000 vehicles on its platform.

India’s ride-hailing segment has been dominated by Uber and Ola for a long time and they have become synonymous with cab services. Recently, companies such as BluSmart and inDrive have entered the arena, but Ola and Uber continue with their duopoly in metro cities.

Bengaluru-based Rapido, founded in 2015, has been offering two-wheeler and three-wheeler ride-hailing services through its application in more than 100 cities in India. The company claims that it has a base of over 10 million customers across the country and over 60% share in the bike taxi market, which it expects to leverage for Rapido Cabs.

The company plans to expand Rapido Cab service to major cities by the end of next year. Rapido Co-Founder Pavan Guntunpalli said the platform can attract more consumers through its “lowest price guarantee” model as the market is very sensitive to prices.

To get more cabs on board, Rapido is banking on its “zero-commission” model. “Our innovative SaaS-based platform revolutionizes the conventional commission system for drivers, tackling the persistent challenger of commission sharing with aggregators. This approach ensures that drivers incur only a minimal software usage fee,” he said.

Guntunpalli said the company has introduced a software as a subscription (SaaS) model instead of the commission model used by other cab aggregators. Drivers will pay a subscription fee for using the Rapido platform upon certain earnings milestones.

Rapido’s entry comes at a time when Uber and Ola are looking to tap more geographies while transitioning to electric mobility. Uber recently launched Uber Green with plans to add 25,000 electric cars to its platform. Ola also has plans to add 10,000 electric vehicles to its fleet.

Guntunpalli noted that Rapido also continues to electrify its fleet. “We have partnered with multiple electric vehicle providers like Zepp Electric to electrify our two-wheeler fleet. We are going to try the same partnership approach for Rapido Cabs as well,” he said.

Recently, the Delhi government notified the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme, which mandates all cab aggregators and delivery service providers to transition to electric fleets by 2030.

Rapido has raised over US$ 300 million in various funding rounds till now and is valued at around US$ 800 million. Its investors include Swiggy and TVS Motors.