Bookmycab.com acquires Cabonclick.com to enter south India market

Hyderabad: LiveMinds Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which operates a radio cab service under the Bookmycab.com brandname, is entering the south Indian market with the acquisition of Hyderabad-based Cabonclick.com for an undisclosed sum.

The 100% acquisition of Cabonclick.com gives Bookmycab.com access to over 150 cabs and a seven-member operations team in Hyderabad. Bookmycab.com is an online aggregator of cab services that connects users and cab drivers. It does not own any cars and earns revenues by taking a cut from every successful fare transaction.

“This M&A (merger and acquisition) is part of our overall strategy to roll out Bookmycab across the country in 2014-15. Cabonclick.com and Bookmycab.com have complimentary strengths and we are confident that consolidation is the way to grow strategically in the e-com space in India,” Avinash Gupta, chief executive officer of LiveMinds Solutions said.

Gupta said the company is focussing on inorganic growth because it gives immediate access to markets and local knowledge.

ASPM Mobility Ventures Pvt. Ltd., the holding company of Cabonclick.com, is getting an undisclosed stake in LiveMinds Solutions as part of the deal. Cabonclick.com, started in 2013, was operationally breaking even, its founder Prateek Mahesh said.

Bookmycab.com is backed by early stage investors Mumbai Angels and YourNest Angel Fund, which have invested an undisclosed amount in 2012.

Founded in 2012, Bookmycab.com is already present in Mumbai and Kolkata and next plans to enter Delhi.

Organised car rental market is booming in India with several players such as Ola Cabs, Meru Cabs, Uber, TaxiForSure, Savaari and CarzonRent competing for a share in a crowded market. In a big push to the sector, ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs Mumbai-based Ola Cabs, recently snapped up $210 million from Japan’s SoftBank Group in addition to the $40 million it raised earlier.