Venture debt firm Alteria Capital has invested another Rs 25 crore ($3.6 million) in Vogo Automotive Pvt. Ltd after first investing in the scooter rental platform in October last year.
Vogo will use the fresh capital to keep growing rapidly and bring its scooters to more customers across India, Anand Ayyadurai, Vogo's founder and CEO, said in a statement.
The startup was founded in 2016 by Ayyadurai, Padmanabhan Balakrishnan and Sanchit Mittal. It allows customers to rent scooters for their commute via its app.
Vogo is operational across 500 points in five cities in India. Customers have completed over 3 million trips using Vogo platform, it said.
The company had raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round in September 2017. In April last year, it raised $7 million in funding led by homegrown ride-hailing major Ola. Venture capital firms Stellaris Venture Partners and Matrix Partners had also participated in the funding round.
In December 2018, Ola said it would invest $100 million in the company. Vogo’s fleet of two-wheelers was to be available for Ola’s 150-million plus customer base. Around this time, the company had also raised around $9 million from Kalaari Capital, Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Hero Group promoter Pawan Munjal’s family trust.
Another player in this segment which has raised funding is Bounce. The startup is backed by Sequoia Capital, Accel and the family office of Sutures India chairman Chandrasekhar Gopalan.
In April, venture debt firm InnoVen Capital put in another $3 million in Bounce.
InMobi co-founder Amit Gupta’s Yulu Bikes has also received a funding push from a bunch of venture capital firms including Blume Ventures and 3one4 Capital.
“We have seen the rapid growth in this segment over the last nine to 12 months and Vogo has consistently surpassed expectations on operating performance and driving demand," said Vinod Murali, managing partner, Alteria Capital.
Alteria Capital
The venture debt firm was founded in 2017 by Murali and Ajay Hattangdi, who were former top executives at venture debt provider InnoVen Capital.
In October last year, it hit the second close of its debut fund at Rs 625 crore ($85 million). The fund seeks to raise Rs 800 crore with a greenshoe option to mop up another Rs 200 crore.
The venture debt firm had made its first investment in ready-to-cook food startup Fingerlix. It followed this up with investments in Sachin Tendulkar-backed celebrity fashion firm Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai-based ed-tech startup Toppr Technologies Pvt. Ltd and home healthcare services Portea.
Its other investments include Delhi-based student accommodation platform Stanza Living and Rebel Foods, an internet kitchen platform that owns and operates a number of brands including Faasos and Behrouz Biryani.
