In recent years, advancements in technology have revolutionized the way we perceive transportation, giving rise to innovative solutions that offer unprecedented convenience and freedom. The introduction of self-driving car rental is one such innovative breakthrough that has completely changed our ideas about what it means to own and operate a vehicle.
With the rise in self-driving car rental, worries about fuel economy, insurance, breakdowns, and mileage have all been lifted. Imagine a world in which renting a car in any city is as easy as using a straightforward app on your phone, giving you the utmost freedom, privacy, and control when you’re on the road. Zoomcar, a ground-breaking platform that has revolutionized how people experience mobility, has made this vision a reality.
Established in 2013 by Greg Moran and David Back, Zoomcar has redefined urban mobility, offering driving convenience nationwide. With a user-friendly app, the platform simplifies the booking process, allowing users to effortlessly book a self-drive car for a seamless travel experience. Zoomcar eliminates the hassles of traditional car ownership, making travel more accessible and transforming the urban transportation landscape.
Read this article to know more about Zoomcar founders, business model, revenue model, growth, challenges faced, funding, and more.
Zoomcar – Company Highlights
| STARTUP NAME | ZOOMCAR |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Sector | Personal Mobility |
| Founder | Greg Moran, David Back |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Website | zoomcar.com |
Zoomcar – About
Zoomcar – How it Works
Zoomcar – Industry
Zoomcar – Founders and Team
Zoomcar – Startup Story
Zoomcar – Mission and Vision
Zoomcar – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Zoomcar – Products and Services
Zoomcar – Market Share and Market Size
Zoomcar – Business Model
Zoomcar – Revenue Model
Zoomcar – Challenges Faced
Zoomcar – Funding and Investors
Zoomcar – Growth
Zoomcar – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
Zoomcar – Advisors and Mentors
Zoomcar – Awards and Achievements
Zoomcar – Competitors
Zoomcar – Future Plans
Zoomcar – About
Zoomcar, India’s leading car rental marketplace, pioneered personal mobility with car-sharing services in 2013, securing its position as the market leader. Zoomcar is dedicated to growing, transforming highways into open-air art galleries, and bringing the advantages of self-driving vehicles to additional communities. It sees mobility as an immersive experience that offers people unmatched autonomy, privacy, and freedom in the age of self-driving automobiles.
With a strong focus on the mobile experience, Zoomcar allows seamless car rentals by the hour, day, week, or month, eliminating worries about mileage, fuel costs, insurance, and breakdowns. Travelers can reserve a self-drive automobile in any location with ease thanks to the user-friendly software, which makes them feel at home wherever they go. Zoomcar has revolutionized driving convenience for tourists all across the country and is still growing quickly to satisfy the needs of urban mobility.
Zoomcar – How it Works
Zoomcar revolutionized the car rental industry in India in 2018 by launching the nation’s first peer-to-peer automobile marketplace and creating the shared subscription mobility model. With an amazing 90% market share as of August 2021, Zoomcar is leading the way in the digital revolution of the sector. Keyless entrance, complete sanitization, and digital customer assistance are just a few of the frictionless and secure experiences that the platform guarantees by utilizing cutting-edge technology like AI and IoT.
Zoomcar’s data-driven methodology, which uses vehicle monitoring and predictive analysis to determine driver scores based on variables like speed and distance, demonstrates the company’s dedication to innovation. This enhances customer safety, vehicle upkeep, and encourages cautious driving. Zoomcar is still influencing the self-drive mobility scene in India by prioritizing ease of use and security.
Travel with Zoomcar
Zoomcar – Industry
The car rental industry in India in 2023 was valued at $2.9 billion, with a projected growth to $3.8 billion, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2028.
This growth highlights the important part that automobile rental services play in providing for the wide range of mobility needs that customers have across the nation. A research analysis from Mordor Intelligence indicates that the market is expected to grow significantly because to factors like growing urbanization, consumers’ choice for quick and adaptable transportation options, and the continuous change in travel habits.
Zoomcar – Founders and Team
Zoomcar was founded by Greg Moran (co-founder and CEO) and David Back (co-founder and former President) in 2013.
Greg Moran
Greg Moran is the co-founder and CEO of Zoomcar. He is a seasoned professional with a history in international relations and finance. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in international relations and the USC Marshall School of Business with an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship.
Greg’s career includes jobs as an Analyst, Senior Analyst at Fieldstone Private Capital Group Ltd, followed by positions in financial analyst, business development at International Power America, Inc., and than Project Finance Consultant at Greg Moran Consulting.
David Back
David Back is the co-founder and former President of Zoomcar. The dynamic professional David Back graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in history. He then went on to Harvard Law School for his JD and the University of Cambridge for his MBA. Along the way, he has held positions as the Hydrogen Expedition’s Director of Government Relations, the Kauffman Foundation’s Researcher for the General Counsel’s Office, and a Summer Associate at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company.
Beyond Zoomcar, after his exit in 2015, he has served as Entrepreneur In Residence at Idein Ventures, Chairman at Tattered Cover Book Store, Inc., Speaker at The London Speaker Bureau and than assumed the role at Icarus Ventures where he is Managing Partner.
Zoomcar has 201–500 employees, as per LinkedIn.
Zoomcar – Startup Story
David Back and Greg Moran met at the University of Pennsylvania’s hallways, which created the conditions for their business adventure. Greg got the concept in college—he’s always had a fascination for India. With a little cash and a great deal of guts, Greg relocated to Bangalore in 2012 to launch Zoomcar. Their goal was to make car rentals enjoyable and simple.
David assumed leadership roles as Zoomcar took off, but circumstances had other ideas. He chose to take a step back in 2012 in order to spend more time with his family. But don’t worry, Greg took the wheel. Having worked in clean technology, he founded Zoomcar with an emphasis on environmentally responsible transport. They were more than just car rental companies; they were revolutionizing transportation-related thinking.
The tale of Zoomcar is a great example of perseverance combined with environmental awareness. Greg’s passion for India and the founders’ aspiration to use tech-enabled ideas to better the world made Zoomcar remarkable. Now, Zoomcar looks out for the environment in addition to helping people rent automobiles. The Zoomcar journey goes on, snaking its way through the rapidly evolving narrative of India.
“The opportunities in India, I realized, would only be compounded over the years, and thus, it became imperative for me to be part of India’s growth story by introducing sustainable self-drive models that cater to the challenges in mobility at large”, says Greg Moran, CEO of Zoomcar.
Zoomcar – Mission and Vision
Mission: The mission of the company is simply stated on the company website: “We exist for a simple reason: we want to drive India’s transformation to sustainable transportation. Unlike other providers, Zoomcar is laser focused on creating self-drive solutions for the current mobility predicament. It’s still early days and while the road before us will certainly have many twists and turns, the sustainable light at the end of the tunnel is what motivates us day in, day out.
Vision:
“Our vision is to acquaint new-age customers with hassle-free car ownership. At Zoomcar, we have always empowered our customers with better mobility alternatives and will continue doing so at scale. This also positively affects the automobile industry as it eliminates the economic barrier to entry of various socioeconomic groups”, says Greg Moran, co-founder of Zoomcar, about the vision of the company.
Zoomcar – Name, Tagline, and Logo
The tagline of Zoomcar is Never Stop Living.
Zoomcar – Products and Services
The company offers a comprehensive suite of car rentals. From hatchbacks to sedans and premium vehicles, it offers users over 10,000 options as of 2020 to choose from at Zoomcar. These are made more attractive with exciting deals and promotions that the team comes up with on various occasions or long weekend breaks.
Zoomcar has also launched India’s first vehicle model agnostic Driver Score Tech Stack for the passenger car segment in October 2019. The AI-Powered algorithm with machine learning capabilities tracks the mechanical specs of the car being driven, the driving style of the customer, identifies critical events of driving and rates it on a scale of 0-100.
Over the past years, while Zoomcar has continued to rent out cars on an hourly basis, it has also brought in several changes. Today, one can have a car delivered to their location. It runs on a different business model, and the focus is on customers who want the freedom of having a car any time they require, for a longer duration.
“The only way we have been able to stay ahead of the curve is by keeping our laser-sharp focus on the vehicle rental space and business. Whether it is cars or two-wheelers, we believe that in personal mobility there is a shift from ownership. That will not move towards the taxi industry but more towards self-drive or rentals”, says Greg Moran.
Zoomcar – Market Share and Market Size
Zoomcar had 75% of the market share as of October 2021. In 2018, Zoomcar introduced India’s first peer-to-peer marketplace for cars with the launch of its shared subscription mobility model, and commands over 90% market share in this space as of August 2021. With the growth of the sharing economy across the globe, subscription-based car ownership is becoming an increasing trend.
The startup boasts of hitting a massive 15,000-car subscription run rate through its shared mobility platform as of September 2019. In the Electric Vehicles segment, the team has announced during end of 2020, its fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) has completed over 1 crore km. As of May 2023, Zoomcar boasted over 25,000 cars listed on its site by private vehicle owners.
Zoomcar – Business Model
Zoomcar has positioned itself competitively in the volatile shared mobility market by offering two resilient business models: long-term subscriptions and short-term rentals. Customers can readily choose hourly or daily prices for short-term needs; pricing is based on the type of vehicle selected.
Taking a bold step forward, Zoomcar transitioned to an asset-light, marketplace model, redefining its approach. With the help of this creative approach, people list their own vehicles on Zoomcar’s online marketplace with ease. With this proactive step, the firm hopes to quickly grow its fleet of vehicles across the country.
This move not only demonstrates Zoomcar’s dedication to sustainability, but it also represents a clever and successful move in the ever-changing shared mobility market. With this change in approach, Zoomcar is now positioned to compete in the market and demonstrate its flexibility and vision in responding to the evolving needs of consumers in the shared mobility area.
Damini Bhandary
Zoomcar – Revenue Model
Zoomcar strategically maximizes its revenue through a multifaceted approach:
Flexible Packages: Zoomcar’s primary source of income is its provision of adaptable rental car packages. Clients can select packages based on how long they need a car—days or hours—so they just have to pay for the time they need it.
Varied Car Options: Since different cars have varied rental prices, the customer’s choice of automobile has an impact on revenue. With this tiered pricing structure, income is guaranteed to represent the wide range of client choices and preferences.
Advertising and Campaigns: Zoomcar aggressively advertises and runs campaigns to draw in a wide range of clients by promoting its services. The maintenance of visibility and competitiveness in the automobile rental market is contingent upon the implementation of strategic marketing initiatives.
Zoomcar – Challenges Faced
The personal mobility segment in India is fast growing and the co-founders saw it to be a segment that needed the most disruption, but the journey has most certainly has had its challenges. There is always a learning curve involved when one is introducing a new category. Car rentals were something that was truly unheard of when Zoomcar commenced its operations, said Greg Moran, who further continued,
“I remember how cumbersome a task it was to comply with regulations for number plates of the fleet, simply because of the unprecedented opportunity. It has been a learning experience to educate and sensitize the authorities and our customers alike, about the perks of car rentals”, when asked about the challenges faced.
To start car rentals, Zoomcar first had to get a license, but it could not get one. This was primarily because the Contract Carriage Permit needed them to have yellow board license plate vehicles. Zoomcar did not have a fleet and it needed to tie up with an owner of a fleet soon. By this time, the company had already raised seed funding and had tied up with several car makers. Greg had put in all his savings also, and it was suddenly a make-or-break situation.
The only way out was to work with an existing player that already had a license. At that point in time, there were five of those (in Bengaluru). Four rejected Zoomcar outright, and it was down to the wire as the founders met with Ramesh Tours and Travels. If that did not work, it meant going back to the US. Greg had one final meeting with Ramesh. They agreed on the terms and worked out a licensing agreement.
“I did not book a return ticket (to India) before the meeting. I went back to the US the next day, but I could come back and that was a relief. It was extremely nerve-wracking and very stressful because it would have been awful to return money to investors before starting a business”, recalls Greg about how Zoomcar was saved.
Zoomcar – Funding and Investors
Till now, Zoomcar has raised around $287.2 million across 24 funding rounds.
Here are some of the funding details of Zoomcar:
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 22, 2023 | Convertible Note | $21.3 million | – |
| October 20, 2022 | Debt Financing | $10 million | Ananda Small Business Trust |
| October 19, 2022 | Venture Round | – | – |
| November 9, 2021 | Series E | $92 million | SternAegis |
| July 12, 2021 | Series E | $17.6 million | SternAegis |
| May 12, 2021 | Corporate Round | $5.5 million | – |
| March 11, 2021 | Series E | $75 million | SternAegis |
| February 8, 2021 | Venture Round | $4 million | – |
| January 20, 2020 | Series D | $30 million | Sony Innovation Fund |
| December 3, 2019 | Corporate Round | $4.8 million | – |
| September 17, 2019 | Corporate Round | $1.9 million | – |
Zoomcar – Growth
Zoomcar has experienced significant growth. Some of the growth highlights are:
- Zoomcar operates in more than 50 cities globally (majorly in India) and has 3 million+ active users as per news report of January, 2024.
- It is operating in three countries India, Indonesia, and Egypt, as per news report of December, 2023.
- Zoomcar officially went public with the formation of Zoomcar Holdings, initiating trading on Nasdaq under the symbol ZCAR on December 29, 2023.
- Company has covered 2 billion+ kilometers as of June, 2023.
- It boasts more than 20,000 hosts and more than 5 million visitors as of June, 2023.
- It has over 25,000 cars listed by individual vehicle owners on its platform as of May, 2023.
- Zoomcar records average 60,000 rental transactions every month on its platform as of October 2022.
Financials
| Zoomcar Financials | FY22 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Revenue | Rs 95 crore | Rs 69 crore |
| Total Expenses | Rs 359 crore | Rs 322 crore |
| Profit/Loss | Loss of Rs 74 crore | Loss of Rs 237 crore |
Expenses
Zoomcar total expenses reduced to Rs 322 crore in FY23 from Rs 359 crore in FY22.
EBITDA
| Zoomcar FY22-FY23 | FY22 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| EBITDA Margin | -11% | -242% |
| ROCE | -41% | – |
| Expense/Rs of op revenue | Rs 3.78 | Rs 4.67 |
Zoomcar – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
Zoomcar Campaign
Zoomcar campaign beautifully captures the warmth of the host-guest connection, aiming to enhance user understanding of the marketplace model. The campaign embodies Zoomcar’s ideals, from presenting a variety of cars and keyless entry to emphasizing the value of user reviews and enabling two-way contact. It also encourages aspiring business owners to host their vehicles on Zoomcar as a means of earning extra money, reaffirming the platform’s dedication to promoting both deep connections and entrepreneurial prospects.
Zoomcar – Advisors and Mentors
Mahindra has been a tremendous partner. Electric mobility was something they always wanted to push out and continue to develop over the next decades. This is a long game they are playing, and in that way, their long-term interests are very much aligned with Zoomcar.
“I think if you look at them they have certainly been visionaries in mobility in India and Anand Mahindra, hat’s off to him, especially because he was able to see out into the future way back when they started to partner more deeply with REVA, which they acquired way back in 2010. Mahindra was always a cornerstone”, says Greg about Mahindra.
Zoomcar – Awards and Achievements
The company has received several different awards including Top Place to Work, Top Brand Marketing Campaign, among others. Each year, it receives several marketing-related awards – CIDCA Award for excellence in Digital Advertising and Marketing, ACEF, Best ATL Campaign for a Cause award at the mCube 2019 etc.
Zoomcar – Competitors
Zoomcar has numerous competitors when it comes to its core business as a mobility service provider. Some of the Zoomcar competitors include:
- Drivezy
- Savaari
- Zypps
- Revv Self Drive Car Rental
services to people for leasing cars, bikes, rooms, homes or heavy equipment.
Rental startups are built to facilitate a way for people to experience something without the need of owning it. One can thus think of driving that
…
Vidhi Punamiya
Zoomcar – Future Plans
Zoomcar envisions a robust future plan as it seeks to triple its current fleet size as it has over 25,000 cars listed by individual vehicle owners on its platform, aiming to host a minimum of 60,000 cars on its platform by the end of the calendar year 2023 as per news report of May, 2023. Zoomcar is committed to providing flexible and accessible transportation solutions to satisfy the increasing demand from individual vehicle owners, and this ambitious growth is a reflection of that dedication.
Zoomcar – FAQs
When was Zoomcar founded?
Zoomcar was founded by Greg Moran and David Back in 2013.
What is the operating revenue of Zoomcar?
Zoomcar operating revenues in FY23 were Rs 69 crore were in FY22 revenue was Rs 95 crore.
What is Driver Score Tech Stack?
Zoomcar launched India’s first vehicle model agnostic Driver Score Tech Stack for the passenger car segment. The AI-Powered algorithm with machine learning capabilities tracks the mechanical specs of the car being driven, the driving style of the customer, identifies critical events of driving and rates it on a scale of 0-100.
How many cars does Zoomcar own?
It has over 25,000 cars listed by individual vehicle owners on its platform as of May, 2023.
Where is the Zoomcar headquarters?
Zoomcar headquarters is in Bengaluru.
