Bike taxi startup Rapido acquires Hyderabad peer Getbike

Bengaluru-based bike taxi startup Rapido has acquired Hyderabad rival Getbike to enter the business-to-business segment, the two companies’ executives confirmed the development.

Rapido co-founder Aravind Sanka and Getbike founder Shravya Reddy confirmed the development. Reddy will move to Bengaluru as part of the deal. The executives didn’t disclose financial details of the deal.

The reports about them in September last year that both the companies were in talks for a deal.

Rapido, run by Roppen Transportation Services Pvt. Ltd, is in talks with various investors for its next round of fundraising.

Sanka said Getbike has a lot of expertise in B2B logistics and that Reddy will be leading its overall B2B initiative. Rapido also wants to get into on-demand logistics of goods like food and medicine, Sanka said.

Rapido was founded by IIT graduates Sanka, Rishikesh SR and Pavan Guntupalli in November 2015. The company operates in Bengaluru and Delhi. In 2017, it raised $750,000 from investors including Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal, Google India managing director Rajan Anandan and Astarc Ventures, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.

Getbike, formerly known as Getmi, is run by Vave Infosolutions India Pvt. Ltd. It was launched in September 2016 by Reddy, who previously worked with Reliance Communications and Apalya Technologies.