E-bike rental startup Yulu, which is seeking to go public, expects to achieve operating profit by September and plans to expand its business in India and overseas, its chief executive said.
The startup currently operates in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai and will expand into cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad in the next 15 months.
It will also explore partnerships with local entrepreneurs in smaller markets such as Varanasi, Agra and Goa.
“Yulu is willing to make its technology platform available to anyone who wants to operate a small fleet in cities where we have no long-term operational plans,” Chief Executive Amit Gupta told Reuters.
The plan comes amid a broader government push to electrify shared transportation, with Yulu relying on partnerships with delivery firms Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto to fend off rivals including Gogoro-backed Zypp Electric and SoftBank-backed Ola Electric.
Delivery executives account for 60% of Yulu’s fleet utilization and revenue share, the startup said in a statement to Reuters, adding that more than 50,000 of them used its services in fiscal 2023.
Yulu, co-founded in 2017 by Gupta, RK Misra and Naveen Dachuri, aims to quadruple its fleet to 100,000 vehicles by the end of this fiscal.
The startup’s annual losses have narrowed to Rs. 555 million in FY22. Revenue in FY21 was $611 million, a company spokesperson said, adding that the annual results for FY23 were yet to be announced.
Yulu’s bike is manufactured by Bajaj Auto, which exports its vehicles to more than 70 countries. The startup plans to tap into overseas markets with the help of the industry veteran.
“The countries that look interesting are the ones that have adopted electric vehicles as a policy,” such as Thailand and Indonesia, Gupta said.
© Thomson Reuters 2023