VOGO Secures Funding Of USD 11.5 Million To Focus On Growth And EV Expansion

VOGO, a tech-enabled self-ride two-wheeler rental service, has announced that it has raised USD 11.5 million capital as an extension of a series C round, from its existing investors including Light rock, Kalaari, Matrix Partners, and Stellaris Venture Partners. The capital infusion will be utilised to expand and electrify the fleet, to increase focus on achieving profitability by improving unit economics, asset utilisation and to optimise marketing growth through better consumer understanding. With net positive contribution margins, VOGO is making strides towards achieving profitability by the end of this year.    

Founded in 2016 by the alumni of IITs and IIMs - Anand Ayyadurai, Padmanabhan Balakrishnan and Sanchit Mittal, VOGO is a personal mobility solution provider that offers flexible, affordable and reliable two-wheeler rides to daily commuters. Leveraging the emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT), VOGO has built many industry-first solutions to offer seamless and an automated riding experience to its riders. VOGO has designed three key services based on commuters’ travel preferences - VOGO NOW (for short durations), VOGO KEEP (offers longer term, from a day to 2 months) and VOGO FLEXI KEEP (offers customization of rental plans basis the need).

Talking about the company’s latest capital infusion, Anand Ayyadurai, Co-founder and CEO, VOGO said, “VOGO strives to provide technology-driven safe and convenient mobility solutions to daily commuters. Our focus on a disciplined approach to growth during the pandemic has helped us to come out stronger with competitive scale and leadership in profitability. We are committed to build on our strengths and roll-out a profitable Electric Vehicle offering going forward. Having significantly improved our unit level profitability in our existing business this year, we intend to utilize this capital to strengthen our product line and focus on better customer experience going forward.”

Expressing views on the funding, Vaidhehi Ravindran of Lightrock said, “We are delighted to see the team at VOGO demonstrate resilience and come out of a tough year stronger made possible by clarity of vision, backed by strong execution and an ethos focused on creating value. We continue to support them despite the uncertainty in funding in the sector because we believe this is the team that has the vision and execution to build a large mobility platform for the Indian customer.”

Since 2016, VOGO has served more than 10 million rides covering about 130 million kilometers. Post pandemic, VOGO has witnessed an overwhelming response from both the cities and are registering strong month-on-month growth.  With a vision to make urban commute efficient and eco-friendly, the company intends to expand its fleet and ride volumes significantly in the next 18 months.