India’s Yulu raises $93M as quick-commerce boom fuels e-bike demand

As India’s quick-commerce platforms contention to present everything from groceries to smartphones successful minutes, electrical mobility startup Yulu has seized the boom, raising $93 cardinal successful caller funding.

The Bengaluru‑based startup offers electrical two‑wheelers connected play subscription plans, truthful transportation drivers tin leap consecutive into the platform, without buying their ain vehicle. With astir 50,000 electrical vehicles successful its fleet, Yulu reports that it logs astir 1.6 million miles each week and powers much than 750,000 deliveries a day. The caller backing volition fto Yulu turn that fleet to 200,000 bikes successful the adjacent 2 years and motorboat faster electrical two-wheelers aimed astatine antithetic logistics usage cases.

The Series C circular comprised $63 cardinal successful equity led by GEF Capital Partners and $30 cardinal successful indebtedness financing. About $5.5 cardinal of the equity constituent was utilized to bargain shares from effect investors whose funds were nearing the extremity of their concern life, co-founder and CEO Amit Gupta said successful an interview.

The woody valued Yulu astatine astir $170 cardinal post-money, radical acquainted with the substance told TechCrunch. Gupta declined to remark erstwhile asked astir the valuation and did not quality the figure.

Existing investors Bajaj Auto and Magna International did not enactment successful the circular aft waiving their pre-emptive rights, allowing GEF to get its people ownership stake, Gupta said. He added that the startup expects this to beryllium its last equity fundraising earlier an eventual nationalist listing, with aboriginal fleet enlargement financed chiefly done indebtedness and lease financing.

The concern moves toward becoming profitable earlier involvement and taxes adjacent year, aft achieving affirmative EBITDA past fiscal year, Gupta told TechCrunch. The startup besides saw its gross increasing seven-fold betwixt fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2026, helium said, without sharing specifics.

The COVID shift

Founded arsenic a bike-sharing startup for municipality commuters successful 2017, Yulu recovered its biggest accidental during the COVID-19 pandemic arsenic request for nutrient and market deliveries accelerated.

Today, Gupta told TechCrunch that astir 95% of Yulu’s gross comes from renting electrical bikes to gig workers connected play subscriptions, portion the remainder is generated by its station‑based rental work successful Bengaluru. The startup has besides dropped an earlier program to merchantability bikes straight to consumers.

To substance its adjacent maturation phase, Yulu is introducing a full-sized, higher‑speed electrical scooter, called Yulu Express. This is designed for longer‑haul e‑commerce deliveries, motorcycle taxis, and explicit parcel services — the areas its slower fleet could not antecedently cover.

About a 3rd of the planned 200,000‑vehicle fleet volition beryllium made up of this caller model, Gupta said.

While Yulu’s existent low‑speed fleet is built by Bajaj Auto, the caller high‑speed scooter comes from a antithetic Indian shaper — Gupta declined to sanction it.

About 500 of the caller bikes are already moving successful Bengaluru and are being trialed successful 3 further cities, Gupta told TechCrunch.

Currently, Yulu operates successful 12 Indian cities, moving its ain operations successful Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi‑NCR, and Hyderabad, portion partnering with franchisees successful 8 different markets. The startup, Gupta said, aims to scope astir 20 cities wrong the adjacent year, with Chennai and Pune among the cardinal targets for expansion.

Gupta stated that Yulu partners with astir each large quick‑commerce, food‑delivery, and e‑commerce level — including Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart — though its customers are the gig workers who rent the bikes, not the platforms themselves. He compared Yulu’s relation to “the AWS of mobility,” supplying the infrastructure that lets transportation workers run without the platforms taking a cut.