Zipro Technologies, a firm that offers bus aggregation services is eyeing to secure an amount of $50 million in a fresh funding round from Essel Group.
The bus aggregator reportedly is seeking to develop its presence in India from the present 10 cities. The company is based in Bengaluru, and it is expecting to utilize these funds to supply bookings for electrical buses and e-rickshaws as stated by a person familiar with the matter.
Established by Subhash Chandra, Essel Group is present in areas including media, entertainment, packaging and technology. The company is planning to invest in ZipGo for the purpose of boosting up the building of infrastructure for electric vehicles.
ZipGo that was founded in 2015 by Gaurav Agarwal, Jitender Kumar and Pritesh Gupta, has raised about $8.6 million in the capital as of now from Orios Venture Partners, Omidyar, Ventureast among others.
“Bus aggregators have good metrics and the market is big enough. But the problem is regulation. There’s no grey area even—they are very clearly banned by law. So it’s very risky to fund them. Investors that are putting money into these companies are doing it despite the regulatory risk,” said a partner at a venture capital firm.
It was last week, Essel Infraprojects Ltd said it is planning to invest Rs 1,750 crore across 20 cities in Uttar Pradesh to build electric car charging stations and battery swapping terminals.
The bus aggregators are pumping up and seeking investments to boost up their operations and expand to another level. However, Shuttl and ZipGo have also been banned in some cities in the past.