Meet the Co-founder of India’s only multi-modal transit app that helps you with real-time public transport information and last-mile connectivity

“Tummoc strives to make public transport commutes seamless across the country”

Tummoc is the first Made-in-India multi-modal patented transit app to help you with real-time public transport information and last-mile connectivity. Launched in January 2021, Tummoc is the answer to the hassle of regular transportation options and the struggle to find reasonably priced short term rides. The absurdity of a 20-minute wait for a 10-minute ride in the metro or a bus, and difficulties in fulfilling the first and last mile requirements when using public transport, formed the base of the Tummoc experience. Tummoc intends to make public transport more accessible to you by creating a data-driven, all-in-one transit platform, thus solving the problems faced by millions of commuters through end-to-end connectivity and an efficient commute. Hiranmay Mallick, Co-founder and CEO, Tummoc, explains more about this platform, in a chit-chat with Ramesh Kumar Raja. Excerpts:

What is Tummoc all about and how consumer-centric is it?

Tummoc is India’s only patented multi-modal transit application to help commuters with real-time public transport information, last-mile connectivity and single journey ticketing. Tummoc helps you to track and find actionable and accurate bus/metro/suburban rail intra-city travel information.

We strive to make public transport commutes seamless across the country, and eventually across the globe. Currently, we’re doing this solely for the commoners to help them plan their end-to-end intra-city travel while making the most of available public transport infrastructure. Find accurate information on buses, metros, and other modes of public transport in your city.

What are the unique features that make it different from others in the given segment?

Some of the unique features include live tracking, ticketing, and giving information about fares, timing and location, which make it different from others in the given segment. Our goal is to do this not just for the sake of commuters, but also for the environment. Public transport is significantly more planet-friendly and reduces carbon emissions by a lot.

How has been the response so far in terms of downloads that it has accumulated on Google Play and App Store?

We are receiving tremendous response from commuters and have crossed half a million-user in the beginning of the month and adding another 100K by the end of this month. We are getting positive response from Bangalore users since the time we have launched online booking of BMTC Bus passes through our app. Our ratings are going up on Play Store and App Store. Our next milestone is to reach 1 million users. The team is working hard to get this done in the next few months.

How did the idea of Tummoc strike you and what were the initial challenges of coming up with a concept that’s very new to India?

Tummoc was started as Bykerr in 2016 which was solely a first and last-mile connectivity app. It was an operations-savvy company that primarily focused on ride booking. Between its inception and 2020, Bykerr received various awards, accolades and grants such as the Best Startup of Karnataka, Toyota Mobility Award for Best Startup and a grant for the Best Startup.

Tummoc went live after rebranding from Bykerr in January 2021, and despite the pandemic, it managed to grow its user base to 50k in June. By August, it had doubled to 100k. In September, our first patent got approved for “System and Method for Multi-Modal Trip Planning with First and Last Mile Connectivity.

Can you please tell us about the cities where Tummoc operates as of now? What are your expansion plans?

Currently, we are operating in Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Soon, we will be launching in more cities such as Delhi.

What are the important features that you are currently working on to make Tummoc even better in terms of services that it offers?

We are also working on a feature in the app where users get an option to customize their rides. For example, a user can tell us that he needs a minimum walking distance for the first file, or ask for a suggestion where the first mile is not needed. And we give him all the options of reaching his closest public transportation mode without using the first mile. All this is a work in progress. We will soon be enabling such a feature in the app.

How do you look at the opportunities ahead, especially when your mobile phone is the gateway to everything?

Exciting times ahead, but lots of works we are doing at backend, not everything can be disclosed at this point. We will be making our product more seamless with addition of new features as per the users’ feedback which we have been receiving lately.

More than opportunities we would like to focus on adding more and more solutions for our daily commuters to make their life hassle free. Opportunities will automatically be created. Surely, mobile phones are the getaway to everything; hence we are trying to make our transit system reach more and more cities so that they can easily plan their intra-city commute from their comfort of home.

What are you doing on the publicity front to increase its recall value?

The transit application is for the commoners and by the commoners of the country. So, along with all the major social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium, Koo, Twitter, Instagram, we are trying to explore vernacular platforms like local newspapers, local news, Public, FM to name a few. Due to the pandemic, not too much offline marketing has happened yet. But, we are already working on it and should start soon.

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