Loca, a shared last-mile connectivity provider in Bengaluru, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its first round of investment led by Stellaris Venture Partners, China-based Fosun RZ Capital and a group of individuals including Aprameya Radhakrishna (co-founder of Taxiforsure), Mayank Bidawatka (co-founder of Vokal) and Rohit MA (co-founder of Cloud Nine).
While Loca did not disclose the amount raised, a person close to the development, who did not wish to be identified, said the start-up raised sub $5 million in this round.
Loca launched its services in April 2019 and is founded by Gautam Patil and Krishnakumar Ramachandran. They conducted field trials for over nine months to develop Loca’s proprietary ride-sharing algorithm before launching the service.
The company says the motorized micro-mobility market in India is approximately 100 million trips per day but is largely underserved, unreliable and unaffordable. In a bid to address this gap, Loca has set up local networks of shared mobility using a mixed fleet of minivans and cars which are dynamically routed based on real-time demand.
“Making shared mobility work reliably at scale while keeping it affordable and convenient is a massive technology problem. We spent many months building the dynamic routing algorithm. The average Loca user gets into a cab within 2.5 minutes of getting out of the metro, even in peak hours. The specificity and volume of data from our operations opens many possibilities to improve further on this. We are confident the value at our price point can help us build a large scale across India,” said Gautam Patil, co-founder of Loca, in a statement.
Loca currently operates from four metro stations in Bengaluru–Indiranagar, Yelachenahalli, Mysore Road and Vijaynagar.
"We view micro-mobility transit as a massive and largely unsolved problem in almost all cities in India. In China, we have witnessed new-age micro-mobility solutions being adopted by citizens at a rapid pace with millions of rides being taken daily. Fosun’s portfolio company Hellobike has showcased the huge scale and adoption and we believe Loca can be at the forefront in India,” said Tej Kapoor, co-executive president of Fosun RZ Capital.
Loca will use the funds to expand its presence to all major metro stations in Bengaluru and further build its tech and operations teams. It plans to expand to multiple cities including New Delhi by early next year.
Catch all the Business News , Corporate news , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.