Launched in January 2016, the start-up offers car pooling solution and especially targets the office-going crowd.
New Delhi: Pay Technologies India Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates car pooling start-up Cloudacar, has raised an undisclosed amount from Amit Choudhary, senior vice-president, corporate finance of e-commerce firm Snapdeal, and Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of real estate services firm JLL India.
Sumit Goyal, chief financial officer of Coca-Cola, Nepal also participated in the round.
The money will be utilized for product enhancement.
Launched in January 2016, the start-up offers car pooling solution and especially targets the office-going crowd. Users can register themselves using its mobile app or by logging on to Facebook or LinkedIn. It allows users to build a trusted community of car poolers. Once verified, users can create their trips, and build a community of commuters who stay nearby or work in the same office.
The four founders, Prajwal Zende, Rishabh Sawansukha, Ashutosh Sathe and Mandar Landhe, are IT professionals and have worked with companies such as the Oracle and IBM.
Cloudacar also plans to work with companies to offer personalized car pooling programmes for their employees. It has so far tied up with JLL India.
It claims that there are around 25 million cars in six major cities of India. Of this, around 78% cars travel with just one person.
It is likely to compete with Gurgaon-based Phonon Solutions Pvt. Ltd, the owner of car pooling app Orahi, which raised Rs.3.5 crore from early-stage investor Indian Angel Network (IAN) in January.
Last year, online taxi hailing service Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) and its San Francisco-based rival Uber too rolled out car pooling in Delhi, which allows private car owners to share a ride with co-passengers of their choice.
International companies like Brazil-based Tripda and French company Blah Blah Cars also launched their services in India last year.
According to a recent survey by Regus, a global workplace solutions provider, 26% of commuters in India spend over 90 minutes per day travelling to work and meetings. In addition, about 16% of all commuters drive to work on their own and, on average, 67% of respondents drive to work using their car, indicating the huge potential for car pooling services.
[“source-Livemint”]