JustRide is also trying to raise further investment for its ‘smart car’ product
JustRide, a Mumbai-based car rental startup that allows regular people lease out their personal vehicles, announced last week it has raised a US$3 million bridge round from a group of international VC firms as well as a trio of Y Combinator private investors.
The additional funding brings the total amount raised by JustRide to US$6.5 million.
The company raised money from the San Francisco-based firm Susa Ventures, London’s Kima Ventures and SCM Holdings as well as Japan’s IT-Farm.
The Y-combinator trio of investors was Partner Justin Kan of Justin.tv and Twitch fame, Y Combinator COO Qasar Younis and Paul Buccheit, who was the lead developer of Gmail.
The money will be used to enhance its service JustConnect, a platform that allows people to rent out their personal vehicles for a fee, and its IoT product called Yabber. Yabber is a plug-and-play device that fits into smart car technology to analyse the skills of the person behind the wheel.
JustRide is now working to raise another round of funding to invest in the Smart Car technology.
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“The challenge is to build a sustainable car – sharing model to cater to the average urban commuters, while keeping in mind the interests of the car owners; who have a depreciating asset that is their car and does not get any return on it,” said JustRide CEO Ashwarya Singh in a statement.
“By leasing their idle car, an average Indian, who earns $500 each month, can increase their income two-fold,” he added.
The idea is most cars sit in a parking lot or driveway for most of the day and the company will help owners monetise the idol period. Singh says the company has onboarded about 220 cars on its platform since piloting the programme in March.
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Eventually, the ‘connected car’ technology will help improve efficiency as well transparency about what is happening to the car while it is being rented.
The company was one of three Indian companies chosen for the Summer 2016 batch at Y Combinator (the highest number of companies from India to ever participate in the programme).
Besides Y Combinator, JustRide was also mentored by Google’s ‘Launchpad Accelerator’ programme.
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