Early-stage venture capital firm Rockstud Capital, founded by angel investor Abhishek Agarwal, has led an investment round in a business-to-business fleet management services provider.
Rockstud, Artha Venture Fund and a few angel investors have invested $1.1 million (Rs 7.90 crore at current exchange rates) in Everest Fleet Pvt. Ltd. The investment marks Rockstud’s first investment.
The Mumbai-based startup provides fleet management services to taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber.
The company, founded in 2016 by Siddharth Ladsariya, said it will use the funding for working capital as well as to increase its fleet size and hire drivers. It is looking to scale its fleet to over 500 taxis within the next year, and is also exploring the possibility of adding electric vehicles to its fleet.
Everest has been successful at addressing operational issues relating to the management of taxis and their drivers, Rockstud said.
Rockstud was set up in 2018. The firm says it is a sector-agnostic fund that focusses on the pre-Series A funding stage.
Last year, VCCircle reported that Agarwal was launching a VC fund that would back both startups as well as listed companies. “We understand that we are a small fund, but basically we would be one of the unique funds investing in pure startups as well as equity markets,” Agarwal had said at the time.
Agarwal has made investments over the past four years in several startups including location-based analytics firm LogiNext Solution, retail pharmacy chain Wellness Forever, product recommendation platform Unbxd and specialised cuisine startup The Bohri Kitchen.