The investment is the latest in a series of moves by Ola aimed at expanding its scope in the urban mobility space.
India’s leading cab aggregator Ola has made a strategic investment of US$ 100 million in scooter sharing startup Vogo. With this investment, Vogo is expected to acquire around 100,000 new scooters. Ola was also an investor in Vogo’s Series a funding round of US$ 6-7 million along with Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal.
The two are set to synergise their operations, as Vogo’s services will soon be offered on Ola’s mobile app. Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola commented, “Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in the country. Vogo’s automated scooter-sharing platform, backed by Ola’s expertise in this space can help transform our cities.”
Ola is endeavouring to expand its offerings beyond cab services to all segments of urban transformation. It acquired Ridlr earlier, which is a commuting and ticketing app for public transport. In addition, it is testing a bicycle sharing service in IIT Kanpur.
These smart app-based cycles with GPS enabled locks are meant for commuting for short distances, especially for college going students who can just drop them off as soon as they reach their destination.
Vogo provides point-to-point scooter sharing services in Bengaluru and Hyderabad currently, and has served more than 20 million km on its platform so far. Their scooters incorporate IoT devices, that allow users to access the key through an OTP. The company has witnessed 10x growth in the past five months and is one of a number of ventures that have taken off in bike rentals over the past two years. Other names include Metro Bikes, Wheelstreet, Tazzo and ONN Bikes.
