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    Rapido launches Mumbai operations, eyes profitability in 18 months

    Synopsis

    The motorcycle taxi service aggregator now has its operations spread across all metro cities in the country.

    Rapido
    Motorcycle taxi service aggregator Rapido launched its operations in Mumbai on Friday eyeing an opportunity for a quick ramp up as citizens look for an affordable alternative to crowded modes of public transport during the pandemic.

    With the Mumbai entry, Rapido now has its operations spread across all metro cities in the country, said Aravind Sanka, co-founder of the company. The company is starting in Mumbai with 2000 rider-partners and plans to scale up to 200,000 riders in the next two years.

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    Rapido, which started its geographical expansion about 18 months ago, has reached break-even in all cities where it has been present for over a year and the company eyes profitability in the coming 18 months, Sanka said.

    When the coronavirus pandemic threw a spanner in the works of the company’s expansion plans, it bet big on the logistics business by catering to person-to-person delivery as well as third-party last-mile delivery. While this segment grew three-fold since January and now contributes to a quarter of the company’s revenue, Sanka said that the focus continues to remain on the taxi business.

    “We are not a logistics company. We are a ride-sharing company that is also into logistics,” he said. The upside to the ride-sharing business is much more than the logistics segment. While the logistics business grows by about 25% year-on-year, ride-sharing grows upwards of 20% every month, Sanka explained. The logistics business is a complimentary revenue stream during non-peak hours for the taxi business.

    Revenue has returned to 55% of pre-pandemic levels for the company. It claims to have over 1.5 million registered rider-partners and over 15 million users with operations in over 100 cities.
    The Economic Times

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