Rapido Founders & Team
Rapido is an Indian ride-hailing service that mainly offers bike taxis. It also provides auto rickshaws, taxis, parcel delivery, and logistics services.
About Rapido & Founders
Rapido is an online bike taxi service based in Bangalore, India, which started in 2015. It operates in over 100 cities across the country and offers rides to various locations around those cities. Every day, more than 15,000 riders use the service.
Pavan Guntupalli
Pavan Guntupalli is one of the co-founders of Rapido and also co-founded Roppen Labs. He studied Electronics and Communication Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He did internships at Reliance Communications and Breakthrough Management Group. Pavan is fluent in both Indian languages and Korean. Before starting Rapido, he worked as a software developer at Samsung Research India.
Rishikesh SR
Rishikesh SR is also a co-founder of Rapido. He studied Computer and Information Sciences at PES University and earned a BE degree. Rishikesh is the founder of IMPStant and The Carrier, and he won the 'Best Project of the Year Award.'
Aravind Sanka
Aravind Sanka is a co-founder of Rapido and theKarrier. He studied Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bhubaneswar and earned a BTech degree. Before starting Rapido, Aravind worked as a Finance Business Partner at Flipkart after doing an internship at Tata Motors.
Rapido - Startup Story
Rapido's story started with a company called theKarrier, which focused on logistics and supply chain to help clients move their belongings. However, Aravind Sanka, one of Rapido's co-founders, realized that shifting from a business-to-business (B2B) model to a business-to-consumer (B2C) model offered more growth potential.
Switching to B2C meant they couldn’t use trucks anymore, so they decided to use bikes. Bikes were cheaper, easier to manage, and could avoid the traffic and delays that cars faced. They started with a small team of 15-20 people, who worked hard to make Rapido a success.
The founders focused on hiring people who owned two-wheelers and wanted to create something different from Ola and Uber, which required heavy investments in cars. They developed an app, the Rapido Captain app, allowing two-wheeler owners to register and verify their details with the company.
They believed that Ola and Uber were too expensive for daily rides and that traffic in big cities was getting worse. So, they decided to offer a more affordable and efficient solution with motorbike rides.
Rapido - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Rapido |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Sector | Mobility Tech |
| Founders | Pavan Guntupalli, Rishikesh SR and Aravind Sanka |
| Founded | November 2015 |
| Valuation | $1.1 billion (September 2024) |
| Parent Organization | Roppen Transportation Services |
| Website | rapido.bike.com |
Rapido - Future Plans
Rapido's main goal is to keep improving its app by adding new features that make it easier and more convenient for both riders (called captains) and customers. The founders are also considering lowering prices to make rides more affordable. They want to add something special to speed up rides for users. Additionally, they plan to introduce a subscription-based "Power Pass" for regular customers to make their rides even more affordable.
Rapido, which is growing quickly as a two- and three-wheeler ride-hailing platform, is also planning to launch a taxi service across a larger network. According to reports from October 28, 2023, this new service will compete with platforms like Ola and Uber.