Zoomcar, the auto rental platform, recently raised $30 million during a Series D found primarily from Sony's Innovation Fun along with other previous investors.
The company also plans on raising an additional $70 million throughout the remainder of this round.
The Sony Innovation Fund was created by Sony in the summer of last year along with Daiwa Capital Holdings to help invest in and grow smaller technology-based startups.
Zoomcar
The company has aimed to raise around $500 million during this current funding round but shortened it to around $200 million. Zoomcar was valued at around $170 million after it ended a Series C funding round in early 2018.
Ford Smart Mobility , Mahindra and Mahindra , and Sequoia Capital have all backed the company and InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital are bother debt investors.
Zoomcar lets consumers reserve vehicles and pays for them online through either its website or mobile app. It also offers an associate program that lets consumers lease out their own vehicles onto the platform and shares revenue with the owner as well as a vehicle subscription service for consumers to lease cars for 3, 6, 9, or 12 month periods.
The company aims to add an additional 100,000 vehicles to its fleet during the next 18-24 months.
Over recent years several mobility companies have begun testing their own last-mile commuting services by using two-wheel rental vehicles. Investors have also noticed this trend and focused their investments on pay-per-use two-wheeled vehicle platforms that allow consumers to pick up and drop off the vehicles wherever they choose within a given city.
Most of these investments were focused on two-wheeler rental companies Vogo, Yulu, and Bounce which together raised around $388 million.
