| Pub. Date | : Sep, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJED51909 |
| Author Name | :K B S Kumar and Indu Perepu |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Management Journals |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 13 |
Zoomcar, the first start-up in India to flag off the self-drive car rental as compared to other initiatives that focused on chauffeur-driven services, was founded by two Americans—Greg Moran (Moran) and David Back—in 2013 in Bengaluru, India. Moran paid his maiden visit to India in the summer of 2011 to gather information about the country as a business destination. He gathered demographic, political and economic facts and statistics and made a reconnaissance of the Indian start-up scenario. Moran was inspired by the opportunities and gaps in India. As a 25-year-old investment banker in the US, Moran grew more and more confident about India as his business destination. Moran came down to India in 2013 to launch Zoomcar. He collaborated with car majors like Tata, Mahindra, Ford, etc. to build a fleet for a car-rental service with the self-driving model. He withstood and successfully overcame the adversities he met in the way of regulations, competition, union bodies, etc. to build Zoomcar. Zoomcar, one of the initial players in cab services, faced stiff competition from imitators and other players. Within a few years of its inception, about 25 start-ups followed Zoomcar’s model. These included Myles, Voler, JustRide, and Revv. With Uber and Ola occupying the point-to-point ride hailing segment in India, the going became tough for Zoomcar. The space was getting increasingly crowded. With the growing competition and a variety of business models crowding the car-rental segment, Zoomcar with about $1.47 mn of annual revenues, looked forward to capitalizing upon its niche segment of customers.
We definitely believe that we’re operating in a unique white space because our competitors are followers who came on after we launched, but they’re not into pure play self-drive car companies.