Zoomcar

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Zoomcar
Private
Industry Car rental
Founded February 2013 (2013-02)
Bangalore, India
Founder Greg Moran, David Back
Headquarters Bangalore, India
Area served
 Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad , Chandigarh[1]
Services "Self-drive" car rental
Number of employees
 About 100
Website www.zoomcar.com

Zoomcar is a self-drive car rental company, founded by David Back and Greg Moran in February 2013 in Bangalore, India.[2] As of December 2015, the company operates a fleet of 1600 vehicles[3] in 9 cities across the country including Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Chandigarh.[4]

History

American duo[5] David Back and Greg Moran, met while studying at the University of Pennsylvania,[6] where both graduated from in 2007. While Back studied at Harvard Law School[7] and Moran worked on energy financing projects.[8] The pair also went on to business school with full scholarships, Moran at the University of Southern California and Back at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.

Back and Moran both dropped out to move to India and pursue Zoom.[9] Zoom officially launched operations in Bangalore in 2013.[10] Zoom started with a fleet of seven cars.[11] However, Back resigned in May 2015, citing personal commitments as the reason.[12] As of October 2014, Zoom operated more than 250 cars in Bangalore.[citation needed]

Zoom's Board of Directors include Graham Gullans, co-founder of Empire Angels. Zoom's Board of Advisors includes former United States Treasury Secretary and former Director of the United States’ National Economic Council, Larry Summers,[13] and Chair of the UK's Pension Protection Fund and former US SEC Commissioner Lady Barbara Judge.[citation needed] Back met Summers at Harvard University, where Back was a teaching assistant to Summers.[14]

Zoom has raised a total of ~$3 million in equity capital. It raised a $1.5M seed round led by New York investment network Empire Angels, with the proceeds going toward technology, hiring, and an expanding fleet.[15] Investors included the San Francisco-based VC firm Funders Club, Basset Investment Group and private angel investors.[16]

In September 2015, Zoom raised a debt of $2 million from Indian venture debt firm InnoVen Capital. The company was unable to get the desired valuation as major firms tapered their investments in India. [17]

In February 2016, Greg Moran announced that Zoomcar would be raise a Series C round of US$ 50 million for expansion in major Indian metro cities. Zoomcar reduced its operational fleet from 2,000 to 1,600 cars. The company reportedly slashed its inventory by 400 cars since reaching a total of 2,000 vehicles in December 2015.[3][18]

Partnerships

Zoom partners with the auto manufacturers like Ford & Mahindra which allowed them to become the first car rental company in India to offer an electric vehicle (the Mahindra REVA E2O by Mahindra) and the Ford EcoSport "urban SUV by Ford” in 2013.[19] Zoom also works with locally established real estate developers, universities, hotels, and corporate IT parks to secure parking for its vehicles and offer pick-up points to its members.[20]

In November 2013, Zoom, Uber (a cab booking mobile app provider) and the Ashoka Foundation came together and launched a month-long campaign in Bangalore called RideSmartBLR to encourage car-rental and discourage drunk driving for its health, economical and environmental benefits.[21]

Zoom was a member of Microsoft's Accelerator Plus program in Bangalore.[22] This program is designed to provide more tailored assistance to later-stage start-ups as they scale their business and raise capital.[23]

Opposition

In July 2015, Zoomcar issued caution information to its customers following opposition from the Ladakh taxi union. Following an incident in which a convoy of 15 cars rented from the company was reportedly attacked by members of the union with stones and iron rods, Zoomcar issued a cautionary mail to customers traveling to Khardung La and Nubra valley.[24] The following week Zoom issued an update stating that the situation had aggravated and the company urged extreme caution to customers traveling to the region. [25] The taxi unions of Gulmarg and Ladakh continue to resist entry of non-local commercial cars in the region.[26]

Controversy

In December 2015, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) banned 54 controversial Indian ads which included a video advertisement by Zoomcar. [27] The ad was found to be in violation of India's Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 by the council, following which the advertisement was pulled off by the company.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.zoomcar.com
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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