Ford invests $15m in Indian car rental firm, Zoomcar
Indian car rental service, Zoomcar, is set to raise $25m in a series C round led by $15m from Ford’s Smart Mobility division, which reportedly marks Ford’s first investment in the car-sharing space in India. The round comes as Zoomcar aims to achieve profitability next year via expansion into more Tier 1 and 2 Indian cities from its current operations in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi, and brings the platform’s total equity funding to $46m. Zoomcar is a membership-based service that allows members to rent cars by the hour, day, week, or month.

Bengaluru-based self-drive car rental venture Zoomcar has reportedly raised $25 Mn in Series B funding led by Ford Motor Company. Its existing investor Sequoia Capital along with new investor, Reliance Ventures also participated in the round.

According to reports, Ford Smart Mobility, the automobile investment arm of the Ford Motor Company, invested $15 Mn, while Sequoia Capital and Reliance Ventures split the remaining $10 Mn investment.

With this, the self-driving car rental company has a total equity funding of $46.2 Mn.

Prior to this, in 2015, it had raised $11 Mn in venture funding from Nokia Growth Partners, Sequoia Capital and Empire Angels.

Zoomcar was founded in 2012 by Greg Moran and David Back. David Back left the company in May 2015, after Zoomcar raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by insiders and some new investors, at the same time.

Zoomcar is a self-drive car rental service which allows you to rent cars by the hour, day, week, or month. It offers a membership-based service that allows individuals to rent vehicles on hourly or daily basis. However, earlier last month, Zoomcar pivoted to a marketplace model as part of a broader strategy to drive efficiencies in its business. With this, it aimed to hit profitability by 2017 by expanding into new markets.

Update [August 25, 2016]

According to a company statement, Zoomcar has raised $24 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Ford Smart Mobility Llc, a unit of Ford Motor Co. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire Angels also participated in the round.

“Ford was our very first partner back in 2013 and this announcement just cements the fact that the two companies share many of the same core values and vision related to urban mobility. Customer experience will remain our highest priority as we scale Zoomcar Associate Program across India in the months ahead and our relationship with Ford will no doubt help us create a world-leading marketplace experience for both our customers and associates,” Moran said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company currently operates in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. It aims to increase its fleet to more than 25,000 vehicles across 25 cities by 2018.

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