Public transport technology company Chalo has raised $45 million in an equity round led by Avataar Ventures, along with participation from existing investor Lightrock, Waterbridge and others. The firm has also raised $12 million in venture debt from Trifecta Capital and Stride Ventures.

Share Market Live

NSE

The company that has so far raised $119 million in funding and is valued at $400-450 million with this latest round. Reports had suggested that Chalo’s valuation also slipped in this round, however Co-Founder & CEO Mohit Dubey denied this in an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18.

"In October 2021 we had raised $40 million from Lightrock. Since then the company has grown multiple times on all fronts of the business. Chalo is operating in 50 cities, including Manila and Bangkok. The valuation has gone up significantly with this round. The funding has not come as down round,” said Dubey.

Also Read: Regulators dust off rule books to tackle generative AI like ChatGPT

The company will use the fresh funds to expand its reach and power more buses.

"We power 15,000 buses and have presence in all large metro cities. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai have a lot more busses which we can further significantly improve. We save 5 lakh man days and they are able to save 24 crores a month. Expansion and powering more buses are on the cards," added Dubey.

Chalo’s operating revenue stood at Rs 35.75 crore in FY22 as compared to Rs 26.17 crore in FY21. The company’s losses spiked over 2X to Rs 66.4 crore.

"We are operationally profitable. The ride-hailing giants are doing a million rides a day but we are issuing 6 million tickets on Chalo platform for public transport every day. The gross ticketing value is close to $300 million. We can get to 100,000 buses and do 2.5 billion rides a month," said Dubey.

Also Read: Tech analysts see upside in these stocks

First Published:May 22, 2023 8:56 PM IST