Google Selects JustRide For Its Launchpad Programme

Google has selected JustRide as one of the companies for Google Launchpad, their Startup Accelerator Programme. Google Launchpad is an initiative by Google to connect with select startups with robust business models from India, Brazil and Indonesia.

JustRide is an innovative Self-Driven car rental company and commenced operations in Mumbai this year. Co-founded by five IITians and backed by angel funding, JustRide has expanded to Bangalore, Pune, Noida and Gurgaon and has a fleet of 300 cars by now.

The selected start-ups will receive an intense 2 week mentorship program, $50,000 as seed investment, without any equity and a further $250,000 of assistance including access to Google’s products such as Maps and Adwords and financial assistance for office space.

Within six months of commencing operations, the Company has reached a clientele of over 20,000 customers. “We’re serving roughly 200 customers on a daily basis and have maintained 100 per cent occupancy on weekends for the past several months. We’ve managed to penetrate the leisure market successfully,” said Vasant Verma, COO and marketing head of JustRide.

JustRide is currently raising Series A round of funding which will be utilized to scale services over 12 cities across India with a fleet of 9000 cars by the end of next year, the company said.

JustRide is the only Indian company that works on an aggregator model and sources its vehicles from individual vendors.

Customers can book their vehicle through the company’s website or on their mobile App and to ease facilitation of services JustRide has launched home delivery services.

Their cars are fitted with the company’s flagship technology; Smart Vehicle Technology (SVT) which taps into a vehicle’s electronic system and provides a real time access to the location and performance parameters of the vehicle, ranging from tyre pressure to the current load on the engine.

“Our products are focused at creating options which would be cheaper than purchasing a car. Our operational model is 8 times more efficient than that of existing companies, allowing a good deal of space to scale”, said Ashwarya Singh, CEO at JustRide.