<article><p>The Indian EV mobility startup Oye! Rickshaw is hopeful that it can ride to EBITDA profitability by end-2022.</p></article>

<p>The Indian EV mobility startup Oye! Rickshaw is hopeful that it can ride to EBITDA profitability by end-2022.</p>
<p>The Matrix Partners-backed company, which provides app-based ride-sharing and delivery services via its electric three-wheelers (popularly called &#8216;rickshaws&#8217; in India), has witnessed exponential growth in the last few months as commuters and e-commerce businesses are looking to save on travel and delivery costs amid a surge in fuel prices.</p>
<p>Oye! Rickshaw is a tech-based EV ecosystem based around driver-partners who fulfil first- and last-mile rides by providing shared and private rides. Driver-partners can also opt to fulfil hyperlocal delivery orders for major B2B and B2C brands.</p>
<p>&#8220;Volumes in the rides segment alone surged 2.5X in the last five months,&#8221; founder Mohit Sharma told DealStreetAsia in an exclusive interview. The startup aims to grow its overall revenues by 350% year-on-year in FY23.</p>
<p>Started by Sharma and his childhood friend Akashdeep Singh — both engineers — Oye! Rickshaw currently provides services in seven Indian cities and says it plans to expand its services across India. The company has 7,000 drivers, over 1 lakh monthly users. and has completed over 8.7 million rides since its founding in January 2017, it claims.</p>
<p>Oye! Rickshaw is a Series A funded firm, backed by Matrix Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal, and Xiaomi. It had raised Rs24 crore from venture debt fund Alteria Capital in April last year, taking its total amount raised to Rs84 crore.</p>
<p>The company also expects to raise a Series B round in a few quarters from new and existing investors, Sharma said.</p>
<p>Sharma is also the founder of Jangid Motors, which he started with his paternal uncle in 2015. The startup claims to have made India&#8217;s first indigenous electric rickshaw.</p>
<h3>Business model</h3>
<p>&#8220;India needs a cost-efficient way to move. If e-rickshaws can provide short-distance rides and delivery at a far lesser price than their gasoline counterparts, then it becomes a vehicle of choice,&#8221; Sharma explained his company&#8217;s raison d&#8217;être.</p>
<p>He further explained that Oye! Rickshaw riders are charged only Rs6 per kilometer. Of this, the driver, who also owns the vehicle, takes Rs5 per kilometer and the remaining Re1 is Oye! Rickshaw&#8217;s cut.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our goal is to ramp up the incomes of drivers by helping them utilise their assets and converting most deliveries in the 0-5 km range to electric,&#8221; said Sharma. To reduce driver-partners costs, Oye! Rickshaw has launched its energy services, offering driver-partners economical battery swaps to avoid the 7-8 hours of charging downtime. It also aims to set up more than 600 battery charging stations by end-2022.</p>
<p>Oye! Rickshaw has partnered with firms such as Jiomart, Grofers, Flipkart, and BigBasket for deliveries and aims to deploy 20,000 EVs by Dec 2022 by expanding across 25 cities in India and aiming for an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $5 million in FY22.</p>
<h3>India&#8217;s EV market</h3>
<p>Besides soaring fuel prices, there are other tailwinds for Oye! Rickshaw: A recent report by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) projects that the Indian EV market will grow at a CAGR of 36% between 2022 and 2026. The EV battery market is also projected to grow at a CAGR of 30% during the same period, it added.</p>
<p>The EV rickshaw space is fast heating up. Oye! Rickshaw competes with deep-pocketed players such as Uber Auto, Ola Auto as well as Rapido, which also offer EV rickshaw rides.</p>
<p>In the last few years, the government has incentivised firms that build EVs and batteries locally. However, experts fear that the lack of a proper EV infrastructure — such as the inadequate number of charging stations in the country — is derailing India&#8217;s EV dreams.</p>
<p>Moreover, the price of EVs remains high due to soaring battery and component costs.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the annual running cost of EVs is 1/8th that of petrol, the cost of buying an EV car may offset the fuel benefits, unlike buying an EV Rickshaw,&#8221; Anand Rathi investment banking director Atul Thakkar told DealStreetAsia.</p>
<p>&#8220;Historically, taxis have moved first to more efficient fuel (from petrol or diesel to CNG) as it&#8217;s cost-effective, given their higher usage. But in the case of personal EVs, it takes longer for the masses to start adopting them and it will happen only when there is supporting infrastructure like charging stations and batteries at lower cost,&#8221; Thakkar added.</p>
<p class='my-2' style='text-align: right !important'><a href='#' class='tablepress-expand-button btn btn-sm btn-primary'>Expand Table</a></p><h2 id="tablepress-1463-name" class="tablepress-table-name tablepress-table-name-id-1463">Do passenger EVs make financial sense?</h2>

<table id="tablepress-1463" class="tablepress tablepress-id-1463" aria-labelledby="tablepress-1463-name">
<caption style="caption-side:bottom;text-align:left;border:none;background:none;margin:0;padding:0;"><a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=tablepress&#038;action=edit&#038;table_id=1463" rel="nofollow">Edit</a></caption>
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
	<th class="column-1">&nbsp;</th><th class="column-2">Petrol (Rs)</th><th class="column-3">CNG (Rs)</th><th class="column-4">EV (Rs)</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="row-hover">
<tr class="row-2 even">
	<td class="column-1">Average cost of buying a car</td><td class="column-2">1,000,000</td><td class="column-3">1,100,000</td><td class="column-4">1,700,000</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Avg kms run annually</td><td class="column-2">10,000</td><td class="column-3">10,000</td><td class="column-4">10,000</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
	<td class="column-1">Fuel Cost per Km (Assuming Petrol @Rs150/L and <br />
CNG@80/Kilo)</td><td class="column-2">15</td><td class="column-3">5</td><td class="column-4">2</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Annual cost of running</td><td class="column-2">1,50,000</td><td class="column-3">50,000</td><td class="column-4">20,000</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
	<td class="column-1">total cost after 5years</td><td class="column-2">1,750,000</td><td class="column-3">1,350,000</td><td class="column-4">1,800,000</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Source: Anand Rathi</td><td class="column-2"></td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>&#8220;The e-rickshaw market faces supply crunches. Oye! Rickshaw is solving this problem by creating new supply and increasing the kilometers travelled per e-rickshaw per day,&#8221; said Sharma.</p>


"Volumes in the rides segment alone surged 2.5X in the last five months," founder Mohit Sharma told DealStreetAsia.

Indian EV mobility startup Oye! Rickshaw expects EBITDA profitability by year end

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