An acute scarcity of gig financial system drivers on app-based cab aggregators corresponding to Ola and Uber is driving demand elsewhere into micro-mobility platforms that provide two-wheeler leases, bike taxis and bike-sharing companies. According to information collected from micro-mobility start-ups like Rapido, Yulu, and Zypp Electric, demand for his or her companies has shot up by no less than two to 4 occasions within the final yr alone, outstripping demand previous to the pandemic.
Bike taxi and auto-hailing platform Rapido has seen a 2X-spike in demand this yr, with every day rides outstripping provide in some cities. Rohit Rathod, head of operations, Bike Taxi & B2B, at Rapido, instructed FE the development is seen in most metropolitan and Tier-1 cities like Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, and Hyderabad. In April, Rapido had raised $180 million in its sequence D spherical of funding led by new investor Swiggy and others, marking a return of funding influx into mobility start-ups which had stagnated post-pandemic.
“Prior to [the Covid-19 outbreak] in 2019, Rapido’s bike taxi platform had around 60,000 rides per day in Hyderabad. This has now increased by almost 2X to around 120,000 rides per day in this city alone. We still have a lot of potential to build up new supply, since we are currently able to service only 80% of all bike taxi ride requests in Hyderbad,” Rathod mentioned.
Autorickshaw rides are additionally seeing a spike in demand from every day commuters. Rathod mentioned Rapido’s auto-hailing service in Bengaluru alone at present operates over 100,000 rides per day, up from round 80,000 rides simply eight months in the past.
“Overall, our unique registration numbers have gone up from 800,000-900,000 sign-ups per month in 2020 to around 1.6-1.7 million per month currently. This is a huge indicator that we may need to scale up our supply in our top cities, and we are now acquiring close to 100,000 bike taxi captains on our platform every month to increase our supply base,” he mentioned.
The majority of the demand for Rapido’s bike taxi service comes from metro cities, with 20% of the quantity originating from non-metro cities corresponding to Chandigarh, Coimbatore and Indore.
Electric vehicle-based scooter-sharing start-up Yulu has additionally witnessed a requirement spike in most metro areas the place it operates. In response to queries from FE, Yulu mentioned it has witnessed wholesome progress in each company and client segments as extra folks begin returning to their work places in H2 2022. Yulu is among the most-funded start-ups within the mobility area, having raised over $25 million in financing from buyers corresponding to Bajaj, Rocketship.vc and Blume Ventures.
“Total rides taken every day on our bikes have gone up 40% from earlier this year to now. Our business sees mild and temporary spikes due to fluctuation in availability of cabs, but the overall demand is quite sustained and growing. Even repeat users have seen a 30% growth, with long-term rental subscriptions contributing to over 65% of our business,” mentioned a Yulu spokesperson.
The firm can also be planning to deploy 100,000 EVs within the subsequent yr, with practically 15,000 being infused into the market month-to-month. The firm can also be launching a purpose-built electrical two-wheeler referred to as ‘Dex’ for supply, targeted on gig financial system staff.
Gurugram-based Zypp Electric, which additionally presents e-scooter-based leases and bike-sharing, instructed FE the platform has witnessed a major spike in ridership ranging from January.
“Owing to this increase in demand we have expanded and doubled our fleet from 2,500 e-scooters to 5,000 e-scooters in the past few months. We are planning to add another 5,000 vehicles to our fleet by Q3 2022, in addition to the partnership with Hero Electric to deploy 150,000 vehicles by the end of 2023,” mentioned Akash Gupta, co-founder & CEO, Zypp Electric.
Zypp’s month-on-month sign-up charge has elevated to nearly 300%, principally led by gig financial system staff who’re on the lookout for different mobility choices which can be inexpensive when in comparison with fossil fuel-based two-wheelers.
“We plan to deploy 50,000 more fleets this year since we have been getting requests for onboarding and increasing our support to popular e-commerce, quick-commerce and service brands. Their interest in partnering with us is not just limited to vehicles but also for support in extending a fleet of gig economy workers owing to the shortages,” Gupta mentioned.
Recently, client web aggregators within the grocery and meals supply area have witnessed outages and delays in operations because of a scarcity of gig financial system staff. Commuters have highlighted poor cab acceptance charges on Ola and Uber beginning this yr, with social media platforms corresponding to Twitter and LinkedIn rampant with comparable complaints.
Grocery supply and meals supply start-ups corresponding to Zepto, Swiggy, Blinkit and Zomato have seen their supply timings being prolonged, with some even witnessing non permanent service outages. Last month, Swiggy’s parcel pick-up-and-drop service ‘Swiggy Genie’ was briefly suspended in a number of cities as the corporate scrambled to maintain up with the expertise crunch throughout gig financial system staff.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”