Bus-tracking and digital ticketing start-up Chalo is eyeing several international markets such as central and north Africa, South America, Middle East and eastern Asia after their recent launch in Philippines and Thailand yielded a good response.
The company, which recently raised $57 million in equity and debt as a part of its Series D round in May, had launched operations in Manila and Cebu cities in Philippines and Bangkok in Thailand less than a year ago, as a part of its international expansion.
“We are scouting out so many other cities and realizing that so many markets around the world have the same problems that we have solved in India,” said co-founder and marketing chief Dhruv Chopra in an interaction with FE.
Chopra noted that the operator demand and user adoption has been strong in Manila, one of the world’s largest public transport markets, where large private bus operators typically have 200-500 buses under their purview.
To offer live bus tracking service on its mobile app for free to its users, Chalo ties up with public and private bus operators and provides them GPS and digital ticketing devices in exchange for a 4-5% cut in their digital tickets and a fixed fee of between `100-150 per bus per day.
Chalo currently provides live tracking for 15,000 buses across Indian cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Bhopal and Jabalpur on its platform that carry out 150 million rides every month.
“In cities like Mumbai and Chennai, we have 30-35% of the daily bus travelers using the Chalo App everyday,” Chopra said. In smaller cities, such as Bhopal and Indore, the share is at 40-45%, he added.
With a valuation of $290 million as of May, Chalo has so far raised $119 million in funding in eight rounds from investors such as Lightrock, Kalaari Capital, Avataar Ventures and WaterBridge, as per data from Tracxn.
Last year in March, Chalo acquired a bike rental company Vogo, and deployed 1,000 electric scooters in Mumbai as a part of their initial pilot. Chopra said that he plans to increase the number of e-bikes to 5,000. Besides Vogo, Chalo had also acquired app-based shuttle service provider Shuttl in 2021.
