Bengaluru: Two-wheeler shared mobility startup Vogo has raised $11.5 million as an extension of its Series C round from existing investors Lightrock, Kalaari Capital, Matrix Partners and Stellaris Venture Partners.
The capital will be used to expand and electrify the fleet, to increase focus on achieving profitability by improving unit economics, asset utilisation and to optimise marketing growth, the Bengaluru-based firm said.
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Vogo aims to achieve profitability by the end of this year.
“…We are committed to build on our strengths and roll out a profitable electric vehicle offering going forward. Having significantly improved our unit level profitability in our existing business this year, we intend to utilize this capital to strengthen our product line and focus on better customer experience going forward,” said Anand Ayyadurai, co-founder and CEO, Vogo.
Vogo has designed three services based on commuters’ travel preferences - Vogo NOW (for short durations), Vogo KEEP (offers longer term, from a day to two months) and Vogo FLEXI KEEP (offers customization of rental plans basis the need).
Two-wheeler rental startups such as Vogo and Yulu have been gearing up to introduce new variants of EV to their fleets to diversify product offerings, explore new use cases and add revenue streams to beat the adverse impact of the pandemic on their businesses.
Vogo plans to launch low-speed EV variants in the first half of 2021, Mint reported in December.
The new product play is part of the larger EV strategy adopted by mobility companies to pursue green vehicle technologies to bring down capital and operating expenditure and reduce their respective carbon footprint in a market where shared mobility continues to thrive as a business proposition.
Vogo and another two-wheeler shared mobility firm Bounce have each set a target to have around 4,000 high-speed EVs by the 2021-end.
“We are delighted to see the team at Vogo demonstrate resilience and come out of a tough year stronger. We continue to support them despite the uncertainty in funding in the sector because we believe this is the team that has the vision and execution to build a large mobility platform for the Indian customer,” said Vaidhehi Ravindran, investor, Lightrock.
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