Oye! Rickshaw eyes over 3-fold growth in gross revenue this fiscal

Mumbai, Jul 12 (PTI) Micro mobility startup Oye! Rickshaw said on Tuesday it is eyeing over three-fold growth in gross revenue at Rs 112 crore this fiscal on the back of a sharp uptick in the company's rides business.

The company said it sees value in various government policies and interoperability standards for building and optimising the ecosystems and crafting a structure to promote large-scale EV adoption in India at every level.

Founded by Mohit Sharma and Akashdeep Singh in 2018, the Delhi-based firm, which is currently present in Delhi-NCR, Haryana with over 10,000 e-rickshaws, started as a first/last mile commute connectivity business.

The company closed around 4 million deliveries to the direct customers of some of the major e-commerce players and online grocery supermarkets in 2021. It is now planning to take this number to 20 million in 2022, it said.

Stating that it has been on a high growth trajectory since 2020 across its three verticals -- rides, delivery and energy segments, the company said, it has recorded financial gains after a significant hold over the market in the three-wheeler mobility segment in the past 10-12 months.

"With a gross revenue of Rs 30 crore in FY22, which is the result of building internal efficiencies as well as macro dynamics, Oye! Rickshaw is all set to target Rs 112 crore gross revenue by the end of this fiscal, which will be 350 per cent year-on-year growth," the company said.

The rides business revenue is expected to jump four-fold by the end of FY23, which further indicates the growth that is expected this fiscal, it said.

"In the last five months, we have witnessed 2.5 times of revenue growth in the ride segment. We hope to grow our overall revenues by 350 per cent year-on-year in FY23 with making relevant and substantial additions to our services with our expansion strategy for the coming year," Mohit Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Oye! Rickshaw, said.

The rides business accounts for 50 per cent of the total business and will remain the major driver for growth, the company said.

However, the company expects its swapping business to grow exponentially and will overtake business from the delivery segment, with an expected 30 per cent share in the overall business in the fiscal year ending March 2023, Oye! Rickshaw added.

This growth is expected to come from smaller cities and towns, where the company is expanding and where the public transport system is not as evolved unlike in the larger cities, it said.

According to the company, the services are presently being offered in seven cities with 10,000 e-rickshaws and plans are afoot to expand to more than 25 cities over the course of the year.

At the same time, considering the smaller size of these cities and lower volume, the company does not expect its delivery business to grow at the same pace in the short-term but as the company acquires a pan-India footprint, this segment will also grow exponentially, it said.

"Our problem-solving strategy and methodologies have brought us today to a place where we foresee ourselves to be easing the common man's daily struggle at a massive level. We were dealing with a set of communities that had a limited understanding of technology, but today we have brought them to know our product and connect to be a part solving one of the long persisting issues of a regular commuter," Akashdeep Singh, co-founder and COO of Oye! Rickshaw, said. PTI IAS SHW