Drivezy, a Mumbai-based startup that offers car and bike rental services, has secured around Rs 32 crore ($5 million) as a part of its first round of initial coin offering (ICO).
The company’s existing investors participated in this new funding round, along with some high net-worth individuals from Japan and Singapore.
According to the reports, this first ICO round from Drivezy was open to investors who have minimum net worth of $1 million or with an annual income upwards of $200,000. Sources aware of the development says that the company will now be exchanging ICO into dollars through US-based exchanges.
Initial Coin Offering is an unregulated method of crowdfunding used by the companies to raise funding from investors who deals in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum among others. Using this method, investors can purchase cryptographic tokens. For its first round of ICO, Drivezy reportedly sold around 3 million tokens at a unit price of 0.00141 ETH.
As part of the ICO, 95% of the revenue generated by customers renting the vehicles through Drivezy will go to the ICO investors and 5% to Drivezy, between the 1st and 5th of every month.
Last year, the company had raised around Rs 65 crore ($10 million) through a mix of equity investment as well as debt-based investment. The startup is planning to use a major part of the funds to create RentalCoins – a currency for the car-sharing industry.
Drivezy, founded in 2015 by Vasant Verma, Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu, and Ashwarya Singh, was formerly known as JustRide. The startup describes itself as a car-sharing platform which helps people turn their vehicles into earning members of their family.