Intercity bus aggregator Zingbus has secured an undisclosed pre-Series A investment led by Venture Catalysts, Titan Capital, and Better Capital, along with Ritesh Agarwal (Founder – Oyo) and Anupam Mittal (Founder & CEO – People Group). The funding round also saw participation from 9Unicorns accelerator fund, AdvantEdge Founders, Smile Internet, MG Group, and several other marquee angel investors.
Co-founded in 2019 by IIT Kharagpur graduates Prashant Kumar and Mratunjay along with Ravi Kumar Verma, Zingbus aims to build India’s largest and most trusted consumer brand for intercity mobility. It currently enables 2,000+ daily journeys across Delhi/NCR, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jammu, Haryana, and Punjab. The platform will utilize the funds to increase its operational footprint across the country and expand the scale of its fleet operations to 500 buses, with a view of fulfilling 1 million safe and hassle-free journeys in the next 12 months.
Prashant Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO, Zingbus, said, “We believe that the right to affordable and dignified travel is fundamental to human existence and development, and so aspire to provide access to safe, reliable, and affordable travel to everyone. We are delighted to have the support of industry leaders, and our journey looks bright under their guidance. With almost 10 million daily intercity bus rides in India, the overall market is worth $15 billion at present and is growing at a CAGR of 18%. About 25% of this market is semi-deluxe, air-conditioned buses, which will be Zingbus’s focus area for the next few years.”
Ravi Kumar Verma, Co-Founder and CTO, Zingbus, said, “A major part of the funds will be utilized in building a technology stack that will allow us to deliver 10x better experience to travelers at 10% lesser fares and scale up to become the largest intercity bus fleet operator in the country.”
Taking insights from global players such as Flixbus, Zingbus plans to run 2,500 buses across all the country’s major travel corridors within the next three years. The platform is launching new services every week and shipping new products every fortnight. Even though the travel industry was severely impacted due to the pandemic, Zingbus has emerged as a clear winner that drove growth by enabling the traditional fleet owners struggling to cope with emerging operational challenges with minimum manpower investment.