DriveU Closes a Mezzanine Round of Rs 7 Cr Led by Stevens Creek Ventures
India’s largest on-demand driver service for consumers and businesses to utilize funds to expand to all Tier-1 cities
DriveU, Indian on-demand driver aggregator closed a mezzanine investment round of Rs 7 crore led by Stevens Creek Ventures located in San Jose, California.
DriveU offers a world-class, on-demand, background-verified driver service for local and outstation travel. DriveU focused on and delivered positive unit economics while serving over 6 Lakh trips since inception. With this funding, DriveU is now in a position to serve beyond India’s six largest metros - Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Pune and Hyderabad.
“DriveU has demonstrated that there is a need for its unique service offering to both consumers and businesses. We are impressed with its singular focus on growth, while paying attention to unit economics – which we believe is key to building a sustainable enterprise. With its current growth curve and unit economics, we have no doubts that it will become profitable very soon. While I have personally invested in DriveU at its seed stage, our newly minted fund decided to invest in DriveU as its first portfolio company," says Mr. Basu Ullagaddi, founder & General Partner at Stevens Creek Ventures.
“We welcome Stevens Creek Ventures to be part of our incredible journey at DriveU to date. These funds will allow us to further expand our reach and achieve break even,” says Mr. Rahm Shastry, CEO & CoFounder at DriveU.
A typical full-time DriveU driver can earn a steady monthly income of ₹20,000 – ₹30,000, while some earn in excess of ₹40,000. DriveU eliminates the burden of EMI payments, fuels bills and vehicle maintenance for the drivers. DriveU has over 6,000 background verified drivers on its platform. The cross utilization of drivers between its B2B and B2C line of businesses optimize DriveU operations and guarantee higher earnings to its drivers.
In February 2016, Unitus Ventures, the leading early-stage impact venture fund in India, led a $1M seed investment round in DriveU. Subsequent investment from Unitus, Dr. Amit Singhal and other Silicon Valley angels has provided DriveU the financial muscle to date.
