<article>Self-drive car rental start-up <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Zoomcar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoomcar India Pvt. Ltd</a> Friday announced that it has closed a $40 million Series C funding round, led by automobile company<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Mahindra &amp; Mahindra (M&amp;M)" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Mahindra &amp; Mahindra (M&amp;M)</a>.</article>

Self-drive car rental start-up <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Zoomcar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoomcar India Pvt. Ltd</a> Friday announced that it has closed a $40 million Series C funding round, led by automobile company<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Mahindra &amp; Mahindra (M&amp;M)" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Mahindra &amp; Mahindra (M&amp;M)</a>.
The round also saw participation from a variety of existing investors, it said in a statement.
M&amp;M, part of the $19-billion Mahindra Group, is investing Rs 176 crore in Zoomcar India which, when converted to common stock of Zoomcar on a fully diluted basis, would constitute approximately 16 per cent stake in the company, M&amp;M said in a separate statement.
The investment proceeds will be used primarily for accelerating Zoomcar&#8217;s marketplace supply growth, improving its lead within applied IoT technologies, and expanding into additional mobility categories across India.
&#8220;The company has been keen to invest in the shared mobility space as a part of its strategy to promote and participate in sustainable mobility solutions, including multi modal urban mobility, with the objective of enabling improved livelihoods and lifestyles of people enabling them to RISE. To that end, the company has been promoting electric vehicles and shared mobility,&#8221; M&amp;M said.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Bangalore, Zoomcar was founded by Moran and David Back. It operates a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles in 27 cities across India, with a team strength of over 200 people. For the fiscal year 2017, Zoomcar had recorded a revenue of Rs 121 crore.
Mahindra operates in the SUV and EV segments in India. Its SUVs already form a majority of Zoomcar’s fleet within that segment. With respect to electric collaboration, Zoomcar recently launched E2O plus vehicles across Mysore, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. In coming months, Zoomcar expects to add another 500 + Mahindra E2Os across &gt;20 cities pan-India.
Zoomcar and Mahindra expect to closely collaborate on electric charging infrastructure to further expand the use cases for EVs.
&#8220;Our collaboration with Mahindra dates back to 2013 when we first kicked off in Bangalore. Most importantly, Mahindra shares Zoomcar’s vision for multi-modal urban mobility and we look forward to leveraging their diverse platform to help accelerate the transformation to a shared, electric mobility future for India,&#8221; said Greg Moran, Co Founder and CEO, Zoomcar.
Zoomcar India, a fully-owned subsidiary of US-based Zoomcar Inc., expects this fresh funding to help the company hit over 15,000 subscriber vehicles on the platform before the end of 2018. Besides, it also expects to dramatically increase its cycle count to meet the robust customer demand. Zoomcar envisions that its PEDL service will operate across more than 75 cities by year end.
Zoomcar launched PEDL, the dockless cycle sharing service, in October 2017. The service currently operates across 10 cities with a fleet of more than 3,000 cycles. The service currently claims to complete nearly 15,000 rides per day and partners with leading universities, IT parks, residential societies, Municipal Corporations, and Smart City groups, the company said.
The company already has Ford Smart Mobility, a unit of Ford Motor Co., as an investor that had led an investment round of about $24 million in the company in August 2016. Its other investors include Sequoia Capital, Empire Angels, and Nokia Growth Partners.
In 2017, Zoomcar introduced India’s first peer2peer based marketplace for cars with the launch of ZAP and these vehicles now account for over 25 per cent of its 3,000+ total fleet, the statement added. Most recently, Zoomcar introduced ZAP Subscribe, a subscription based program for cars that offers to reduce all friction related to obtaining a personal vehicle by dramatically reducing the upfront payment, eliminating documentation, and ensuring instantaneous delivery of the vehicle.
Zoomcar competes with the likes of Myles and Revv.

M&M, part of the $19-billion Mahindra Group, is investing Rs 176 crore in Zoomcar India.

India: Mahindra leads $40m round in car rental startup Zoomcar for 16% stake

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India: Mahindra leads $40m round in car rental startup Zoomcar for 16% stake

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