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Bike taxi platform Rapido has raised $52 million in its latest round of funding. The startup’s new investors are Shell Ventures; Yamaha; Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED); Amarjit Singh Batra (CEO, Spotify India); and Positive Moves Consulting.

Existing investors, including Pawan Munjal of Hero Group, Westbridge, Nexus Venture, and Everblue Management, also participated in the funding.

The startup noted it would utilise the funds to invest in technology, people, and supply to further boost its growth in India and make affordable transportation a reality for the masses.

“Even though our product and business model are lucrative and have the potential to churn out an exceptional revenue, this fundraising indicates more of the investors’ confidence in us than the need for capital,” Rapido Co-founder Aravind Sanka said in a statement.

He added, “From 15 million users in the last two years, we now plan to increase that number to 50 million in the next 18 months and continue providing affordable transportation for the masses.”

At present, Rapido has a presence in around 100 cities across India. It has seen a strong recovery in its operations over the last few months and is confident of business doubling by the end of March 2022 from pre-COVID levels, a top company executive said.

Talking about Rapido Rental, Sanka said the service has been launched in six cities — Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Jaipur. The startup plans to expand to Tier-II and III cities soon.

The service will be available in multiple packages depending on duration, and riders can book rides for 1-6 hours.

He said the rental concept was conceived as a result of customer usage data analysis. The startup launched an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) to validate the data, and once the validation was received, Rapido Rental was launched in the initial Tier-I cities.

Last year, Rapido announced several initiatives towards maintaining safety and following guidelines to protect the customer and the Captain, including the innovative safety back shields for bike taxi rides.

The company also introduced new policy support last year, where it provides free cancellation if captains or customers are without a mask.