Vehicle rental and mobility platform Drivezy Inc. is considering launching an initial public offering (IPO) in the US or Japan, according to a report in Mint on Tuesday.
Ankur Sengupta, business development head at Drivezy, told the daily the startup will either list on the New York Stock Exchange or the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The company is not considering India as an option, mainly because all its investors are either based in the US or Japan, Sengupta said. “Secondly, the country’s existing laws don’t allow loss-making companies to sell shares to the general public,” he added, according to the report.
VCCircle has reached out to Drivezy on the details of its potential IPO and will update this report accordingly.
The development comes just a week after media reports suggested that Japan’s Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd was in advanced stages of discussions with the Bengaluru and Delaware-based Drivezy to lead a $35 million (approximately Rs 249.94 crore) funding round in the company.
Yamaha is in talks to commit capital to Drivezy for its Series C round through its balance sheet. The Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer is an existing investor in Drivezy through Innovation and Mobility Fund, its venture investment arm.
Drivezy was founded in April 2015 by Ashwarya Singh, Hemant Sah, Vasant Verma, and Amit Sahu, and Abhishek Mahajan. In 2017, it raised $10 million (Rs 65 crore then) from Das Capital, Axan Ventures, CrowdWorks, and IT-Farm. It has also signed an asset financing deal worth $100 million with Japan’s AnyPay.
If successful with its public offering, it will mark the latest example of an Indian startup listing itself in foreign markets. Other companies that have already done so include travel platform MakeMyTrip, which listed itself on the Nasdaq in 2010, and communications services Kaleyra, which listed itself last year.
According to the Mint report, other companies that are expected to list themselves on public markets in the next two to three years include Ola, Oyo, Freshworks and Urban Ladder. A startup that has listed itself on Indian stock exchanges, however, is business-to-business marketplace IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd.
IndiaMART listed itself in July last year. The net proceeds, after deducting issue expenses, went to investors selling their stakes in the company. Intel Corp.’s venture capital arm; Accion Frontier Inclusion Mauritius, a fund managed by venture capital firm Quona Capital; and venture capital firm Amadeus partially exited in the IPO.
