{"id":2911,"date":"2014-05-12T12:29:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T19:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2014-08-25T12:30:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T19:30:30","slug":"unitus-seed-fund-invests-in-auto-rickshaw-m-commerce-startup-mgaadi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/updates\/unitus-seed-fund-invests-in-auto-rickshaw-m-commerce-startup-mgaadi\/","title":{"rendered":"Unitus Seed Fund Invests in Auto Rickshaw M-Commerce Startup mGaadi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enables commuters to order pre-booked or on-demand auto rickshaws with a promise of reliable, safe, courteous, and price-predictable service<\/h2>\n

\"\"13 May 2014. Bangalore, India<\/b>: Unitus Seed Fund, India\u2019s most active seed-stage impact investor, has led an equity investment in mGaadi, a mobile-commerce ordering service for auto rickshaws. mGaadi will use the investment to further develop its network of auto drivers, to enhance its technology platform, and to prepare its operations for significant expansion in Bangalore and\u00a0 other India metros. This is Unitus Seed Fund\u2019s fourth investment in innovative commerce marketplaces, following investments in\u00a0Milaap<\/a>\u00a0(online crowd-funding for microloans),\u00a0GoCoop<\/a>\u00a0(e-commerce marketplace for cooperatives) and\u00a0Medypal<\/a>\u00a0(online marketplace for healthcare services).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nmGaadi raises funding from global impact investing firm Unitus Seed Fund<\/a><\/td>\n\"techcircle\"<\/a><\/td>\nUnitus Seed Fund invests in mobile-based auto rikshaw booking service mGaadi<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\"yourstory_logo\"<\/a><\/td>\nmGaadi raises funding and ensures that you ‘pay by meter’ for your auto rickshaw ride\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n\"DealCurry-Logo\"<\/a><\/td>\nmGaadi gets investment from Unitus Seed Fund<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\"nextbigwhat\"<\/a><\/td>\nUnitus Seed Fund invests in mGaadi, auto rickshaw ordering service\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n\"silicon_india\"<\/a><\/td>\nHail your autorickshaw with mGaadi<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Auto rickshaws have poor consumer perception and limited earning potential for drivers<\/b><\/h4>\n

India\u2019s basic individualized public transport option is the auto rickshaw with more than 50 lakh (5 million) drivers across India\u2019s metros. Bangalore\u2019s 160,000 auto rickshaws represent 3% of its vehicular traffic but carry a whopping 30% of daily commuter trips. Commuters regularly experience challenges finding autos when they need them, and face further issues dealing with drivers refusing rides, charging high fares and generally not being courteous. Many auto drivers struggle to earn their daily income targets or to increase their incomes by working longer shifts. The result is a disorganized and highly inefficient system which no one is happy about.<\/p>\n

Technology enables better rider-to-driver matching, more transparency, and higher earning<\/b><\/h4>\n

\"mgaadi-app-driver-details\"<\/a>The incredible growth in\u00a0affordable smartphones<\/a>\u00a0and low-cost GPS devices in India enables the opportunity to create new location-based services that can reach the masses. mGaadi has launched a service which enables consumers to order an autorickshaw for near-immediate pick-up, or to schedule a pickup using their mobile phone \u2013 either through an app or a voice call. mGaadi auto drivers are then connected to riders based on their location and availability. After each ride, consumers rate the driver experience; only the best drivers are kept on the network. mGaadi\u2019s approach improves the service quality by leveraging crowd-sourced ratings. And the best drivers get more fares, thus increasing their daily revenue. Bangalore-based riders can download the free mGaadi app on the Android Play Store and the Windows Phone Store directly from their smartphones. They can also use the web app at\u00a0http:\/\/mgaadi.com<\/a>\u00a0or by calling 080-4242-1414.<\/p>\n

Pay by Meter (!) and more<\/b><\/h4>\n

mGaadi auto drivers commit to a high-quality customer experience including: (a) always accepting riders; (b) always using their meter; (c) driving safely; and (d) maintaining a courteous attitude. All of this adds up to a more affordable, convenient, reliable, safe, pleasant, and consistent experience. Some consumers are already addicted!<\/p>\n

\"boarding-auto-3\"<\/a>\u201cOur premise for mGaadi is that alleviating commuter pain points and improving auto drivers\u2019 incomes are akin to two legs of the same body, you can\u2019t move one without the other,\u201d said Solomon Prakash, co-founder of mGaadi. \u201cWe realized that there are at least 20% five-star drivers out there and we want to allow consumers to connect to those drivers to have a more reliable, quality commute solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experienced founding team with early market traction<\/b><\/h4>\n

mGaadi was co-founded by Solomon Prakash and Vishy Kuruganti. Solomon, an Ashoka fellow and serial social entrepreneur, has previously founded non-profit organizations (Maya, Prajayatna) and for-profit organizations (Maya Organic and Labournet). Vishy, a technologist and entrepreneur, has held senior engineering\/product\/leadership roles with Navteq, Yahoo and Adobe in Silicon Valley and Bangalore and has also founded TechSangam.com, a blog on Indian social enterprises and social entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

mGaadi has already signed up over 2,100 auto drivers to their network in Bangalore. Over a quarter of the drivers have already been rated by customers. They have just setup a new call and operations center with improved capacity in order to handle the number of auto order requests which are growing rapidly month over month. They have released beta versions of their apps for Android and Windows Phone and will soon be launching all new apps based on customer feedback. The iPhone version will also be released soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia\u2019s consumers are wild about smartphones, and now they can use them to schedule an auto rickshaw whenever needed,\u201d said Will Poole, Managing Partner, Unitus Seed Fund. \u201cmGaadi is bringing Uber-like convenience to auto rickshaw riders, addressing a massive need in India\u2019s growing metro areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unitus Capital<\/a>\u00a0was the financial advisor and Impact Law Ventures was the legal advisor on this transaction, advising Unitus Seed Fund.<\/p>\n

About mGaadi<\/b><\/h4>\n

mGaadi is an mobile-commerce auto rickshaw ordering service provided by India Drivers Network Services Pvt. Ltd.. It was founded in 2013 by Solomon Prakash and Vishy Kuruganti, seasoned entrepreneurs who have experience building scalable technology-enabled businesses and working with large numbers of low-skilled workers. Their vision is to make local commuting reliable and easy for commuters and improve and stabilise incomes for auto rickshaw drivers. The company is based in Bangalore.\u00a0More about mGaadi ><\/a><\/p>\n

About Unitus Seed Fund<\/b><\/h4>\n

Unitus Seed Fund is India\u2019s most active seed impact investor, funding BoP startups that serve large low-income populations. Unitus Seed Fund plans to grow its\u00a0portfolio<\/a>\u00a0of 11 companies with up to 30 more startups in sectors including skill development \/ livelihoods, agriculture, technology for development, healthcare, education, and access to basic necessities. Unitus Seed Fund is part of the\u00a0Unitus Group, a successful financial services group operating in multiple emerging markets since 2000. Unitus Seed Fund has offices in Bangalore and Seattle.\u00a0More about Unitus Seed Fund\u00a0><\/a><\/p>\n

Read more about mGaadi ><\/a><\/h2>\n

Tags: apps<\/a>, auto rickshaws<\/a>, m-commerce<\/a>, mobile phone<\/a>, mobile-app<\/a>, smartphone<\/a>, tech for dev<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enables commuters to order pre-booked or on-demand auto rickshaws with a promise of reliable, safe, courteous, and price-predictable service 13 May 2014. Bangalore, India: Unitus Seed Fund, India\u2019s most active seed-stage impact investor, has led an equity investment in mGaadi, a mobile-commerce ordering service for auto rickshaws. mGaadi will use the investment to further develop… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_aioseop_title":"","_aioseop_description":"mGaadi enables commuters to order pre-booked or on-demand auto rickshaws with a promise of reliable, safe, courteous, and price-predictable service","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[138,139,132,136,133,137,140],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}