Bengaluru-based on-demand driver provider DriveU has raised ₹7 crore in a mezzanine funding round from Silicon Valley-based Stevens Creek Ventures. With the latest investment, DriveU becomes the fund’s first portfolio company.
The funds raised will be used to consolidate its position in the existing markets while expanding outreach to new geographies. It will further help the startup move closer to breakeven.
DriveU, owned and operated by Humble Mobile Solutions, was founded by Ramprasad Shastry, Ashok Shastry, and Amulmeet Singh in July 2015. The startup offers a world-class, on-demand, background-verified driver service for local and outstation travel.
The on-demand driver aggregator has enabled more than six lakh trips since inception, across six cities including, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.
Talking about the investment, Basu Ullagaddi, Founder & General Partner at Stevens Creek Ventures, said, “DriveU has demonstrated that there is a need for its unique service offering to both consumers and businesses. We are impressed with its singular focus on growth, while paying attention to unit economics – which we believe is key to building a sustainable enterprise,”
He further added, “With its current growth curve and unit economics, we have no doubts that it will become profitable very soon. While I have personally invested in DriveU at its seed stage, our newly minted fund decided to invest in DriveU as its first portfolio company.”
DriveU enables users to hire drivers in a hassle-free manner through its app, which provides the features like tracking and communicating with the assigned driver. The users are provided with easy payment options like cash, Paytm, and MobiKwik.
Earlier in March 2018, DriveU has raised $3 million in a funding round led by Singhal Foundation, along with participation from Unitus Seed Fund, Geoff Wooley of Patamar Ventures, and Rajeev Madhavan of Clear Ventures.
DriveU has acquired three startups in the same segment, in order to strengthen its platform. The acquired startups are CallAtHome, DriversKart, and Zuver.