United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based cab hailing company Careem has acquired Hyderabad-based minibus service Commut. The details of the deal remain undisclosed.
The recent acquisition is in line with Careem’s plans to expand into mass transportation across the 100 cities it has a presence in.
Commut co-founder Prasanth Garapati said, “Careem will be taking the technology, talent, and team of Commut for its bus service across 100 MENAP cities. The company doesn’t have plans to enter India as of now.”
Commut was founded by Prasanth Garapati along with Hemanth Jonnalagadda, Sandeep Kachavarapu, Charan Thota, Akshay Chennupati, and Srujai Varikuti in 2015. It provides tech-based mass transit service offering shuttle services for daily office commuters in Hyderabad.
Since the UAE-based company does not have any plans to expand into India, to make sure the livelihood of Commut’s drivers isn’t affected, they will become part of another shuttle service provider Shuttl, according to Commut. Also, Commut’s customers will also become part of Shuttl.
Commut raised $200,000 in seed funding from Hyderabad-based investment platform 50K Ventures in April 2016.
Other minibus shuttle service providers in India include Shuttl, and ZipGo, among others.
In August, Bus aggregator ZipGo raised ₹200 crores in series B round led by Essel Group.
Earlier in July, Another minibus service provider Shuttl raised ₹75.6 crores in series B funding round led by Amazon in connection with Amazon Alexa Fund, and Japan-based Dentsu Ventures, along with other existing investors.