Ola, Uber rival Rapido becomes India's newest unicorn startup after raising over Rs 1,000 crore

Ola and Uber rival Rapido has become India's newest unicorn startup after raising $120 million, or over Rs 1,000 crore, in funding from existing investor WestBridge Capital at a post-money valuation of $1 billion.

According to an ET report, Rapido is likely to raise another $20 million from global investors. 

Prior to this, Perfios and Bhavish Aggarwal's AI startup Krutrim AI joined the unicorn startup club. Notably, Krutrim is India's first AI unicorn startup.

Rapido funding and investors

So far, Rapido has raised over $430 million in funding from investors, including TVS Motor Company, Nexus Ventures, Shell Ventures, Kunal Shah (CRED), Yamaha, Pawan Munjal Family Trust, Nexus Venture Partners, and Positive Moves.

According to CrunchBase, it acquired two companies, Getbike in 2018 and Vahananlytics in 2019.

The Hyderabad-based startup was founded in 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, and Rishikesh SR. Rapido, which started off as an auto and bike taxi aggregator, has also ventured into cabs.

Prior to the current round, Rapido raised $180 million in April 2022 in a Series D round led by foodtech major Swiggy, with participation from TVS Motor Company and existing investors Westbridge, Shell Ventures, and Nexus Ventures.