New Investment Values India’s Rapido at More Than $800M

India’s Rapido bicycle taxi platform has raised $180 million in a Series D funding round, TechCrunch and other media outlets reported.

The round was let by Swiggy, a major force in India’s food-delivery industry, and puts the value of Rapido at more than $800 million.

Also investing in the latest funding round, according to the reports, were TVS Motor Company and three existing investors: Westbridge, Shell Ventures and Nexus Ventures. Other backers, reportedly, are Kunal Shah of CRED and Amarjit Singh Batra of Spotify India.

Rapido says it operates in about 100 cities in India and has 25 million customers and 1.5 million drivers. The company’s major rival is India’s Zomato.

Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and chief executive of Swiggy, is quoted in the reports as stating: “We hold a lot of respect for the resilience Rapido has displayed in transforming the mobility and logistics space in India,” adding: “Swiggy and Rapido share a vision to build a logistics platform that empowers riders through more opportunities and higher earnings. While we’ve already been working together, this investment facilitates closer alignment to leverage the synergies between the platforms and improve the value we provide to both consumers and delivery executives/captains across the country.”

Rapido’s co-founder, Aravind Sanka, added that TVS Motor team members, “who are very passionate about EVs and the future of mobility, will help us in further expansion. We hope to accelerate our pace of becoming a household name as we increase our geographies and services, on the backbone of our robust, global-standard technology,” he added.

PYMNTS noted earlier this month that Indian antitrust regulators from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) are looking into food delivery companies Zomato and Swiggy over allegations of a lack of neutrality at the companies.

Read more: Food Delivery Services Zomato, Swiggy Investigated by Indian Antitrust Regulators