Sharedcab.com, a provider of shared taxi services, has raised under Rs 5 crore from Anupam Mittal, Sasha Mirchandani (Kae Capital), Blume Ventures, Rajesh Sawhney and a few unmanned investors. The funds will be used for product development, marketing and increasing the team size, according to nextbigwhat.com.
Launched in October this year, the startup was founded by NV Subramanian and Prakash Sikaria. NV, an IIM Lucknow alumnus, also has an engineering degree from BITS Pilani. Prior to Sharedcab, he was the business head with Future Group (Big Bazaar). Sikaria is an IIT, Kanpur alumnus and holds a MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management in US. He has earlier worked at Barclays Capital.
The site basically offers commuters an option of sharing AC taxis for regular travel (to and fro from office, college or daily meetings). For the same, it aggregates existing taxi operators. As of now, the company has a fleet of over 500 taxis and is available only in Mumbai.
“Daily travel in Indian cities is a pain, to say the least. How nice would it be if all of us could have a dream ride daily, without the hassles of driving/parking, without fighting to get an auto/taxi, at rates that are equivalent to auto fare. We've put together Sharedcab for all those who want a better ride,†a note on the site reads.
The cars offered by the company include sedans and small cars like Mahindra Logan, Maruti Swift D'zire, Tata Indigo, Wagon R, Santro. Once booking is done, commuters will receive an e-mail and SMS with the driver and car details. Since it’s a shared service, you cannot choose your co-travelers. However, if you can get two or more people together for a route, then the company can arrange a car only for that particular group.
Sharedcab was one of the five startups shortlisted for funding by Global Super Angel Forum as part of GSF Accelerator.
While not directly competing with Sharedcab’s offering, the other players in the online cab booking space include TaxiForSure, Olacabs, YourCabs, TaxiGUIDE and Savaari. You can read more about each of them here.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)