Chalo, a public transport-tech company, on Tuesday said it has acquired bus aggregator Shuttl’s business for an undisclosed sum.
Before COVID-19, Shuttl had a presence in large Indian metros like Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai, and international cities like Bangkok, and was fulfiling about 100,000 rides daily through its 2,000 buses.
The company said this acquisition offers Chalo key strategic gains. It will enable Chalo to accelerate its plans for international expansion as Shuttl already has a presence in Bangkok, and enter large Indian metro cities.
Shuttl addresses the premium bus services market targeted at office-goers looking for a more comfortable commute and is, therefore, a natural extension for Chalo’s stage carriage city buses business. Shuttl also has a technology platform, which caters to point-to-point premium office commute buses, augments Chalo’s city buses-focused technology platform. Companies added in a statement.
“We are delighted to join hands with the Shuttl team. We have shared a common passion to solve the daily commute problem, and we have strong synergies in our values and approach. We have great respect for the team and the business they have built,” Mohit Dubey, co-founder and CEO, Chalo, said.
“Chalo and Shuttl were already the largest brands in their space. Together we now fulfil more than 25 million rides per month, and aim for international expansion along with further growth in India as well,” he added.
Amit Singh, co-founder and CEO of Shuttl, said: “We started out to take the pain away from daily commuters. In the process, we ended up building a category, and inspiring others from different parts of the world to do the same. It's a bittersweet moment for us. We believe the team and legacy of Shuttl will thrive equally well in the new set-up.”
Chalo will continue using Shuttl in the premium office bus service category. All of Shuttl’s current team, including key people who have been a part of Shuttl’s core team since inception, will continue under their current roles.
Chalo, which was founded in 2014 by Dubey and Vinayak Bhavnani, also provides contactless payment solutions intending to transform bus travel into a safer experience.
Super Highway Labs Pvt. Ltd which operated Shuttl was founded by Deepanshu Malviya and Amit Singh in 2015. Before COVID19 it provides shuttle services across more than 50 routes with about 600 buses, averaging around 30,000 rides a day. Shuttl also separately catered to corporate houses.
Shuttl to date has raised around $120 million (around Rs 902 crore) from investors like SIG Investments, Amazon, Dentsu, Trifecta Capital, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed India Partners, among others.
Chalo and Shuttl will have a combined presence in 33 cities across 12 Indian states including Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, and others.