Drivezy has also partnered with Unocoin to accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment, making it the first self-drive car and bike rental firm in India to accept cryptocurrency

Even as Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo is mulling an entry into India, Drivezy, a self-drive peer-to-peer car and bike sharing company, has raised US$10 million in a fresh round of investment from new and existing investors, including Das Capital, IT-Farm, CrowdWorks, and Axan Ventures.

This brings Drivezy’s total investment raised till date to US$16 million. Earlier, the startup has secured US$6 million from Y Combinator, White Unicorn Ventures, Dheeraj Jain, Punit K Goyal, Alok Mittal, Susa Ventures, Qasar Younis, Paul Buchheit, Kima Ventures, Justin Kan, and IT-Farm.

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Drivezy will deploy a major part of the new investment to create rental coins — a currency that it claims will  transform the global car-sharing industry.

Additionally, the company has announced the launch of its first private Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to expand its peer-to-peer sharing marketplace for cars and bikes.

Drivezy (formerly JustRide) was founded in April 2015 by Ashwarya Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, Vasant Verma, Abhishek Mahajan, and Amit Sahu.

Drivezy allows individual car owners to list their idle cars on its platform; the cars are then rented by customers.  Since the launch, over 800 owners have listed 1,318 vehicles with Drivezy in four cities. It claims to have a monthly GMV of over US$950,000 and a 246 per cent growth in unique customers over the last year.

Headquartered in Bangalore, Drivezy also operates in Mumbai, Pune and Mysore, and aims to expand to five more cities by the end of 2017.

Drivezy recently entered the bike rental market by launching geared and non-geared bikes in Bangalore.

Drivezy was one among the few startups selected by the prestigious American startup accelerator Y Combinator for the 2016 summer batch and is backed by Google.

“Considering the rising cost of vital assets and resources especially housing and transportation, I believe the future is a shared one. The world is moving on to a collaborative model of consumption and our mission is an aggressive journey to change the way people purchase, use and sell motor vehicles,” said CEO Ashwarya Singh. “The funds raised will fast-track our strategic expansion into new markets across India and global markets.”

The firm has also partnered with Unocoin, an Indian Bitcoin exchange company, to accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment, thus making it the only self-drive car and bike rental company in India to accept cryptocurrency. This technology allows individuals to transact value across the globe securely without the need for any intermediary party.

“With the growing popularity of Bitcoin in India, we feel that this is the right time to open alternative means in the sharing economy. This ICO is part of our vision to leverage the power of the blockchain to build an open, secure and transparent technology to globalize the Indian car sharing marketplace,” said Singh. “Rental coins can potentially create almost 1 million micro-entrepreneurs who can supplement their household income by renting their assets.”

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For ICO, Drivezy has partnered with AnyPay, a Japanese fintech company which is also an investor in the firm. AnyPay will be providing Drivezy with ICO advisory support in terms of scheme structuring and token development. The launch of ICO will allow Drivezy’s investors to purchase cryptographic tokens which entitle them to a share of the revenue generated by rental transactions on the platform, which has proven to generate an average RoI of 30 per cent.

“Drivezy is building something more than a simple sharing business; they are building a system that can unify the global sharing economy. I chose to support them as I believe that they have the knowledge and skill to accomplish their vision,” said Shinji Kimura, CEO, AnyPay.

Drizezy is mainly competing with Zoomcar, a heavily-funded self-drive car rental company.

 

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