Micro-mobility is making headlines globally for the last few years and over $5 billion has gone into startups in this space. Startups in the US and China have become unicorns on the back of bicycles, skateboards, mini scooters, and e-bikes to ease first and last mile connectivity.

However, fingers have been burnt too, especially in China with hyper-funding and hyper-scaling resulting in a good thing becoming a civic menace. Startups like Mobike and Ofo were sold off at meagre valuations and the cycles themselves ended up in landfills.

In the US we have been seeing unicorns too, but far more emphasis on the safety of e-bikes as well as creating urban infrastructures like dedicated lanes and charging points.

However, India is just getting started. It appears that startup founders and investors are picking up cues from both the US and China. More importantly, the Indian government’s own emphasis on investing in this infrastructure via the smart cities mission and the FAME 2 scheme has been a shot in the arm for startups.

CNBC-TV18’s Mugdha Variyar caught up with Amit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Yulu, a bike sharing startup to find out more about the company’s plans.

First Published:May 18, 2019 4:09 PM IST