JustRide targets 12 cities by year end

The major metros in the country have expanded and smooth transportation of the population, especially the residing workforce, presents a complex challenge. Mass public transport carry passengers well beyond their capacity on a daily basis and the issue of discomfort has driven the commuters to opt for personal car as a mode of transport. Buying a car brings with it a great deal of liabilities and it is because of factors like these that self-drive car rental market in India is expected to witness a boom.

JustRide, the innovative Self-Drive Car Rental company is growing at a fast pace since it commenced operations in Mumbai this year. Co-founded by five entrepreneurs, alumnis of NIT Allahabad and IIT Powai, and all ex-MNC executives, JustRide has expanded to the cities of Bangalore, Pune, Noida and Gurgaon and has a fleet of 300 cars today. The Company has received angel funding from well known investors.

As opposed to conventional rent-a-car firms who purchase their cars outright, JustRide is the only Indian company that works on an aggregator model and sources its vehicles from individual vendors. Since it does not own vehicles, it does not require deep pocket like heavily funded peers for running operations.

JustRide is a platform which links vendors in the self drive car rental business directly to the customer.

JustRide cars are fitted with the company's flagship technology- Smart Vehicle Technology (SVT) which taps into a vehicle's electronic system and provides a real time access to the location and performance parameters of the vehicle, ranging from tyre pressure to the current load on the engine and the G force experienced on each of the individual suspensions. The implementation of SVT negates the requirement of high security deposits as the vehicles are under 24×7 surveillance and can be stalled from a remote location if needed. The company has already filed a patent for its SVT which is pending clearance. JustRide has also started a massive exercise of mapping data on vehicle performance and customer's driving skills.

All cars operated by JustRide are equipped with Dual Air Bags and ABS systems and comply to the stringent Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards of America (FMVSS), which is an industry first in India.

Customers can book their vehicle through the company's website or on their mobile App and the cab will be on your doorsteps at the required time. To ease facilitation of services JustRide has launched home delivery services in all the cities where it currently operates. The company is refining its hyperlocal service model to deliver vehicles in under 10 minutes from their time of booking.

The fact that JustRide does not own any of the vehicles which it operates gives it a massive advantage over competitors. Since commencing operations in Mumbai in April this year with 8 cars, the company has rapidly scaled to over 300 cars in 5 cities.

Within six months of commencing operations, the Company has reached a clientele of over 20,000 customers. "We're serving roughly 200 customers on a daily basis and the numbers keep increasing every week. The trends reveal a peak in demand during longer weekends and public holidays. We turn down a considerable number of customers every weekends and have maintained 100% occupancy on weekends for the past 4 months. We've managed to penetrate the leisure market successfully", says Vasant Verma, COO & Marketing Head, JustRide.

"We've created a roadmap for tapping into the demand for daily commute on weekdays as well. The bulk of traffic comprises of people heading to their workplace. Our products are focused at creating options which would be cheaper than purchasing a car", says Ashwarya Singh, CEO, JustRide. He adds, "Ours is the only model which completes the existing ecosystem, guaranteeing a fixed return to all stake holders. Our operational model is 8 times more efficient than that of existing companies, allowing a good deal of space to scale".

According to Ken Research, the Indian car rental market revenues will grow at a considerable CAGR rate and is expected to touch INR 800 billion by 2019. The growth is largely driven by increasing penetration of Internet and mobile apps.

JustRide is planning to expand into another eight major cities by the end of the year and expects to turn into a profitable venture within the next 18 months. It is currently raising a Series A round funding which will be utilized to scale services over 12 cities across India with a fleet of 9,000 cars by the end of next year.

Source : Equity Bulls

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