Namma Yatri’s ₹25 revolution: The tiny Bengaluru app forced Uber and Ola to change—what’s next?

And then, in November 2022, Namma Yatri, another icon, in the mustard yellow and green livery of the city’s autos, found its way onto Priya’s home screen. The app seemed very modest but its promise was audacious: no commissions. For drivers, it meant they would pocket every rupee. For commuters, it meant less chances of cancellations and short wait times. And for ride-hailing operators, it was a shot across the bow—one they couldn’t ignore, and eventually had to follow (the holdout, Uber, finally bit the bullet last week).

A boon for drivers

Namma Yatri was born out of the restlessness of Bengaluru’s auto drivers, who had gone hoarse crying foul about their earnings being shaved by commissions, and their fares being dictated by algorithms. The Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU), weary of this forced compromise, wanted a way to reclaim control. Namma Yatri was the alternative the drivers had been longing for.

Behind the upstart app was the heft of Juspay, a Bengaluru payments company that already ran the rails for millions of digital transactions, and the architecture of Beckn, the open protocol co-created by Nandan Nilekani to keep digital markets free from monopoly.

“The core belief was simple—that the people doing the real work should take home most of what the customer pays. That’s where it all started," said Shan M.S., Namma Yatri’s co-founder.

Since its launch in November 2022, Namma Yatri’s open dashboard reports that drivers have collectively earned ₹2,075.86 crore through the platform. The service currently has 667,000 lakh registered drivers, with about half of them operating autos, while the rest are divided between cabs and bike taxis. To date, the app has facilitated more than 123.7 million trips.

Though it started out promising to leave the entire fare to drivers, Namma Yatri today collects a modest subscription fee for its services, something that has caused heartburn in the drivers’ union. It charges drivers a flat fee— ₹25 for a day’s worth of trips or ₹3.5 per ride for 10 rides and free thereafter—and leaves the rest of the fare to the driver.

Soon after Namma Yatri flipped the script in Bengaluru, rivals were forced to adapt. Rapido was the first to do away with commissions, followed by Ola and Uber. But the real pivot came when Ola extended the zero commission model to its cab segment, swapping cuts for a flat subscription fee.

This August, Uber, too, began piloting a zero-commission model for cabs and, in a statement last week, said it would incorporate it across the board. “In line with changed market practices, we are now running on a subscription model across all form factors, including cars, autos, and bikes," Uber said in the release.

While Rapido and Uber charge drivers ₹29 as the daily subscription charge, Ola’s fee is much higher, at ₹67.

Its trip numbers seem impressive, Namma Yatri doesn’t really have much to show for it, financially speaking. In FY24, the commuting facilitator posted just ₹2.2 crore in revenue with a ₹3.3 crore loss. There was no other income, while expenses stood at ₹5.3 crore. Shan, however, claims the company is now operationally profitable in two of its biggest markets, Karnataka and West Bengal.

In comparison, Rapido clocked ₹648 crore revenue and recorded a ₹371 crore loss, while Ola’s ride-hailing business raked in ₹1,761 crore with a ₹10 crore loss. Uber India was the leader, with ₹3,860 crore in revenue, and a loss of ₹89 crore, according to MCA filings.

Though they have been around for a while, the big three are still in the red. But they have deep pockets unlike Namma Yatri, the smallest operator in the arena, which relies on close ties with regulators and public infrastructure to punch above its financial weight.

Till date, Namma Yatri has raised just $11 million in a pre-series A round that gave it a post-money valuation of $55 million. It is now scouting for fresh funds, two people told Mint, though details remain scarce.

In comparison, Rapido, Namma Yatri’s nearest rival, has raised nearly $574 million to date, and became a unicorn—touched a billion dollars in valuation—in 2024. The company’s funding journey began with a tiny seed round of $180,000 in 2015 and culminated in a hefty $245 million Series E (2024–25), with the bulk of the capital coming in the last three years.

Given these realities, it is not clear how Namma Yatri, a minnow in comparison, can turn profitable with its business model now being emulated by the others and nothing to differentiate what it offers.

Shan, however, is sanguine about the company’s prospects. “Others want to capture value through their brand. Our model is different—the value creation happens through technology, while the community takes the benefit," he told Mint.

Namma Yatri’s moat now lies in the plumbing: a lean cost base, Beckn-enabled metro and bus integrations, rollouts in more states, and partnerships with unions. Layered with open dashboards that show commuters fair pricing, it’s a harder play to copy than just fares, says Shan, noting that Namma Yatri is now offering multimodal trips, which he believes give it an edge.

“In the short term, pricing may look the same, but our costs are one-fifth of competitors’, all inclusive," he claimed. “That’s why even on a smaller scale we are already operationally profitable (in two markets). This model may grow slower, but it’s sustainable."

Going multimodal

For many, the daily commute isn’t a single ride—it’s a series of them. An auto to the metro, a cab from the station, sometimes even a bike taxi at the last mile. That patchwork is rarely seamless, especially when delays and cancellations creep in.

It’s that fractured reality Namma Yatri is betting on—stitching various modes together into one seamless journey. “I just want one app that gets me from door to desk without the juggling," said a Bengaluru commuter, echoing a demand that’s become near universal.

It’s a need that Namma Yatri is looking to fulfil. Shan said the company wants to become “a multi-modal player". To this end, Namma Yatri has begun offering customers trips via different modes as a single journey.

Since it runs on the Beckn open protocol, Namma Yatri can plug directly into public infrastructure such as metro APIs, bus systems, and government-backed taxi schemes (e.g. Yatri Sathi in West Bengal or Kerala Savaari). That means instead of booking each leg separately, a commuter can plan end-to-end, for example, an auto to the metro, a metro ticket or pass, and a cab or bike to the last mile.

Amit Kaushik, an independent automotive industry expert, explained the play. “Multimodality is bundling—end-to-end commute, last-mile coverage. Sustenance is tough in this ecosystem with razor-thin margins, so you need to adapt constantly," he said.

It’s a bet rivals are chasing as well. Uber and Rapido have already tied up with ONDC and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). More recently, both stepped into Indian Railways’ first cab aggregation play—bringing airport-style kiosks, assistance counters and dedicated parking zones to stations. Uber has bagged contracts at Ahmedabad and Kolkata’s Howrah station, while Rapido has tied up with Patna’s Danapur and Ahmedabad’s Maninagar and Sabarmati, and is targeting ten more stations by the year-end.

Changing mix

Over the last three years, Namma Yatri has scaled up steadily across the South—in Karnataka, Kerala (Kochi), and Tamil Nadu (Chennai)—and pushed east into Odisha and West Bengal.

While it started out with autos, the mix is shifting. Cabs now make up 40% of the business, largely on the back of a partnership with the West Bengal government and local unions under the Yatri Sathi banner, Shan told Mint.

Yet, it has struggled to crack the northern markets, given the difficulty of scaling mobility platforms across states with different regulations, union dynamics, consumer behaviour, and competitive incumbents.

“The North is complicated because Gurgaon, Noida, and Delhi are in different states with different regulations. But the good part is now all three are controlled by the same central government, so strategically this is the best time to crack the North," said Kaushik.

The expert added that scale will be the defining factor. “Scale has to be very fast, as without it players will be ignored. In Gurgaon and Noida especially, after BluSmart’s exit, there’s still a gap. Ola has collapsed in the North, and local aggregators are filling the void. But there’s no single strong aggregator," he added.

Namma Yatri is also counting on the Bharat Taxi initiative, announced by union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah in Parliament six months ago, to boost its fortunes. Sahkar Taxi, a cooperative taxi service under the aegis of the central government, operates Bharat Taxi, which is being touted as a first-of-its-kind cooperative-driven, citizen-first national ride-hailing initiative. The project has tapped Namma Yatri as its technology partner. The company participated in the tender and will now customize its stack for Bharat Taxi. The agreement, however, is yet to be formally closed, three people aware of the development said.

Weathering storms

While Namma Yatri’s driver subscription fee is modest, it goes against the original promise of having “no charges at all" and irked ARDU, its founding ally in Karnataka.

ARDU brought close to 10,000–15,000 drivers onto the app during its launch, giving it critical heft in its early days in Bengaluru. In August 2023, after Namma Yatri rolled out its subscription fee, nearly 9,000-10,000 drivers quit the app. The union even launched its own app, Metro Mitra, a simple QR-code based system that lets commuters scan and hail an auto. But adoption was poor and most of the drivers who quit are now back.

“We have been very clear from the beginning that we are open to all unions. It’s not about one specific union—we work with everyone, and welcome all collaborations," said Shan.

Adding to the friction, rivals have bristled at Namma Yatri’s GST exemption. In 2023, the Karnataka Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR), a quasi-judicial body under the finance ministry’s GST framework, ruled that Namma Yatri was not liable to collect GST (goods and services tax) on auto rides, since it only facilitated connections between drivers and passengers, and doesn’t supply the transport service itself.

The distinction lies in framing: while Ola, Uber and Rapido are deemed “suppliers" under Section 9(5) since they control pricing and payments, Namma Yatri has positioned itself as a mere connector on the Beckn protocol, with drivers setting and receiving fares directly.

Even global giant Uber is tilting towards the same play with its shift to the subscription model. “In the absence of GST clarity on this operating model, this transition [to subscription] reflects the larger industry evolution towards SaaS (software as a service)-based facilitation, already well-embedded in practice," the company said in its statement last week.

Namma Yatri’s exemption is now under review, even as Rapido, Ola and Uber continue to remain liable under Section 9(5) of the CGST Act.

Previously, under the commission model, GST was 5% without input tax credit (ITC) or 12% with ITC. Under SaaS, drivers are charged 18% GST, which they pay themselves. This dual structure has created a regulatory disparity that remains unresolved.

“For us, this was always core to how we thought about the business. Others may change models for tactical benefits, but for us it was never about that," Shan said.

Wider cap table

Amid all this, Namma Yatri’s cap table has seen a slight change. Juspay, which had incubated the app, began stepping back—mobility was never a natural fit for its pure digital stack. That opened the door for venture capital firms Blume Ventures and Antler to step in with Google, and invest nearly ₹92 crore. But Juspay remains Namma Yatri’s largest shareholder, with a 32% stake as of October 2025.

“Mobility inevitably needs a physical layer—fleets, communities, government enablement. You might think of yourself as a digital layer, but unless you offer a full stack, it won’t work, it isn’t core to what Juspay does," an investor in Namma Yatri told Mint.

Meanwhile, investor appetite in the sector continues to rise. “We’ve been obsessed with shared mobility for over a decade. For us, mobility in India is like financial services: it’s never going to be a small problem," said Karthik Reddy, managing partner at Blume Ventures, an investor in Namma Yatri.

Reddy pointed out that Namma Yatri’s rivals Rapido, Ola, Uber are still focused on the upper end of the daily commuter stack, not the mass market. Competing head-on with their capital-heavy playbook, he added, isn’t realistic: “We can’t play the game they’re playing. So, our approach is to marry community, government and technology—to build partnerships that take us into these markets, rather than trying to create our own closed marketplace."

With rivals co-opting its playbook, Namma Yatri now faces a big test in proving it can be more than just a zero-commission app. The company’s wager on multimodality will determine whether it leaves a lasting mark on India’s mobility story, or fades into the churn it created.