Wickedride Adventure Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates dockless scooter-sharing platform Bounce, has raised around Rs 505 crore ($72 million) in its Series C round of funding.
Existing venture capital investors Accel and Sequoia led the funding round. Accel invested Rs 138 crore and Sequoia Rs 113.5 crore, according to a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Existing investor Chiratae Ventures, previously known as IDG Ventures, invested Rs 53.5 crore. New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge India invested Rs 69 crore, technology investor B Capital put in Rs 68 crore and Qualcomm Ventures wrote a cheque of Rs 42 crore. Maverick Ventures and Omidyar Network India have also invested in this round.
VCCircle estimates show that Bengaluru-based Bounce raised the funds at a post-money valuation of $200 million.
Separately, Bounce said in a statement that it will use the money to expand its presence nationally, especially in smart cities, and to strengthening the technology.
The latest round takes the total capital raised by Bounce to $92 million, the startup said.
The company said it had recently raised $8 million in a Series B round that was led by Chiratae Ventures with participation from Accel Partners India, Omidyar Network, Sequoia and Qualcomm Ventures. In August last year, Accel, Omidyar and Sequoia had invested $10.2 million in its Series A round. Bounce had raised $2 million in its pre-Series A funding round.
In April, Bounce had raised Rs 20.8 crore from venture debt firm InnoVen Capital. This was Bounce’s second round of funding from InnoVen Capital; the venture debt firm had provided the same amount in September last year. The company had also raised Rs 15 crore from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal through BAC Acquisitions Pvt. Ltd, according to RoC filings.
Bounce was founded in 2014 by Vivekanand Hallekere along with Varun Agni and Anil G. It has a fleet of 5,000 keyless bikes in Bengaluru. It records close to 24,000 rides a day.
Late last year, Bounce acquired the India assets of Chinese bicycle-sharing unicorn Ofo, which had wound up operations in India a few months before.
Kabir Narang, general partner and co-head of Asia at B Capital Group, said that the firm has invested in micro-mobility as a prioritised theme across the globe.
"Bounce can help democratize access to last-mile transportation with use of technology to deliver an efficient and economical solution. The company has built a transformative solution to address mobility challenges in India and other emerging markets," he added, indicating overseas ambitions of Bounce.
Two-way race
The dockless scooter-sharing platform is turning out to be a race between Bounce and Vogo Automotive Pvt. Ltd, which also has attracted a number of investors.
Earlier this month, venture debt firm Alteria Capital invested another Rs 25 crore in Vogo after first investing in the scooter rental platform in October last year.
Vogo, which was founded in 2016, is operational across 500 locations in five cities in India, it said recently. Customers have completed over 3 million trips using Vogo platform, it claimed.
In December last year, ride-hailing firm Ola said it would invest $100 million in Vogo. The startup’s fleet of two-wheelers was to be available for Ola’s 150-million customers.
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.
