Zoomcar sees 7 times volume growth ahead of US listing

The turbulent two years of covid-19 was a blessing for the Bengaluru-based startup. The disruptions forced the startup to pivot from direct-leasing, or an ownership model, to inviting hosts to list their cars on its platform, which were rented out to users. The strategy paid off, as it opted for an asset-light and sustainable model.Besides, the post-pandemic behavioural change prompted families to take more frequent long-weekend trips, in bigger cars and with greater flexibility. This translated into 20-30 times higher ticket size, or revenue per trip for Zoomcar, in comparison to rivals, who primarily focus on short, intra-city rides.

Zoomcar, with 90% share of India’s self-driving car market, is also not looking to expand its footprint in markets like the US where the competition is stiff. “We have seen about 7x growth in business volumes compared to last year as we got out of covid-19. We’ve grown by leaps and bounds during this period. When we were operating in direct leasing or vehicle finance model, our maximum strength was about 7,000 vehicles. Now as we’ve transitioned into a full marketplace, we’ve been able to grow it by three and half. We also achieved significant improvement in our ticket size, much like what you’ve seen with other digital or e-commerce platforms, where commonalities coming through covid-19 and then moving out of it, was the purchasing power and overall volume, and ticket size going up quite a bit,” Greg Moran, co-founder and chief executive officer, Zoomcar, said in an interview.

“Our average ticket size has gone up by over 50% from the pre-covid-19 phase. Trips for $40 or $50 range have gone up to $65-75. It’s a very meaningful jump in terms of the basket size,” Moran added.

Zoomcar clocks an average of 60,000 rental transactions on its platform every month. Transaction volumes are growing commensurate to the supply, he added.

While India is Zoomcar’s largest market by far, it has expanded its operations across Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia. “I think our presence in these markets is going to form a jumping-off point to go into another 15-20 markets in 2-3 years, particularly Latin America, broader Africa, and Southeast Asia.”