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ZoomCar is the biggest self-drive, car rental company in the country. It is also one of the few expat-run firms and holds about 85% market share with over 2,000 cars.

ZoomCar

ZoomCar India Pvt Ltd

Name as per MCA records

Greg Moran

CEO

Bengaluru

Headquarters

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Investors

Sequoia Capital

Ford Mobility

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Competitors

Myles

What has Zoomcar been up to, the last year?

ZoomCar drove into the limelight for being the first Indian company to be funded by Ford Mobility.

In June ‘15, taxi drivers in Leh attacked ZoomCars and banned them from entering the region. The company and political parties had to talk the union back from the edge. Rentals to Leh are among the top three segments for the company and if that route had been shut down, it would have been a body blow for the Bengaluru startup.

The company has been one of the top employers of new talent in FY16.

Results

Rs 90 crore: Revenue recorded by the company in FY16. It made Rs 17 crore the year before and Rs 22.7 lakh in FY14. A steady climb in its revenues indicate its growing popularity and the company’s willingness to push the boat out for millennials who have inadvertently become its key demographic.

Rs 101 crore: Losses ZoomCar has chalked up in FY16. Up almost five times from FY15. The loss, however, has increased in context to the revenue which has grown almost six times as well. The company plans to double its vehicle strength and losses may be set to rise.

Rs 72 crore: Debt the company has taken on primarily to buy vehicles and launch new cities like Ahmedabad and Kolkata. The debt is almost 80% of its revenue. The company, strangely enough, also added autos to its fleet.

Rs 100 crore: Cost of vehicles purchased in FY16

In partnership with Tofler

Rs 19 crore: Salaries given to its employees compared to Rs 94 lakh last year. Also a result of expanding aggressively in 2016-17. The company grew to over a dozen cities from the big four metros.

Rs 2,000: Revenue per ride. ZoomCar claims it does 1,200 rides per day.

David Black: Co-founder of ZoomCar quit in May ‘15.

Notes from the auditor: “ The company did not have an appropriate internal control system with respect to information technology system for monitoring and renting cars, which would potentially result in misstating of revenue recognition in the financial statements”

“We’ll make profit in all the markets… and newer markets are [already] more profitable,” said Greg Moran to Economic Times in October ‘16. How Moran does that will be keenly watched.

AUTHOR

Patanjali Pahwa

Patanjali has spent over seven years in journalism. He last worked at Business Standard as Principal Correspondent, where he wrote on startups, e-commerce companies and venture capital. He has worked at an array of institutions, which include Forbes India, Caravan and Outlook Business. He is a Mumbaikar, born and brought up. Patanjali did his BSc in IT from Mumbai University and then got his journalism degree from IIJNM in Bangalore. He is enamoured by Ernest Hemingway and Tom Waits and may try to sneak in references to them in his stories.

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