Dubai, UAE-based ride-hailing app Careem has acquired Commut, a Hyderabad-based mass transportation app, marking its entry into India, announced the company on Monday.
Careem did not disclose the size of the deal, which it said would accelerate Careem's expansion into mass transportation through the addition of bus services across the 100 cities it operates in.
Post acquisition, Commut’s talent and technology will be taken by Careem while Commut's local operations – including its customers and driver-partners – will be taken over by Shuttl, a shuttle service provider based out of Gurgaon, India. This is part of Shuttl's deal with Careem, when the Gurgaon-based firm had raised US$11 million in a series B round led by Amazon and Dentsu Ventures in July.
Backed by Chinas Didi Chuxing, Careem is itself reported to be the subject of a potential takeover bid by US ride-hailing giant Uber in a deal that could value it at $2 billion or more.
Founded in 2015, by six IIIT Hyderabad graduates, Commut has been funded by UK-Based Shell-Foundation and 50K Ventures and its bus shuttle service has been operating in Hyderabad since November 2015. To date, they’ve made over 750,000 trips within more than 100 existing routes and are the third-largest transportation app in India. The six co-founders of Commut are -- Charan Thota, Hemanth Reddy Jonnalagadda, Prasanth Garapati, Sandeep Kachavarapu and Srujai Varikuti.
Prasanth Garapati, CEO of Commut, said: “We built Commut with the mission to touch and improve people’s lives by offering an economical, comfortable, safe and tech-enabled mass transit solution. Our mission is in line with Careem’s of providing users with a safe, reliable, affordable and convenient means of transportation for people. Joining Careem and building the mass transportation vertical will help us in fulfilling our mission at a much larger scale”.
To recall, Careeem had also acquired Savaree, a Lahore,Pakistan-based cab service startup, in March 2016
Careem did not disclose the size of the deal, which it said would accelerate Careem's expansion into mass transportation through the addition of bus services across the 100 cities it operates in.
Post acquisition, Commut’s talent and technology will be taken by Careem while Commut's local operations – including its customers and driver-partners – will be taken over by Shuttl, a shuttle service provider based out of Gurgaon, India. This is part of Shuttl's deal with Careem, when the Gurgaon-based firm had raised US$11 million in a series B round led by Amazon and Dentsu Ventures in July.
Backed by Chinas Didi Chuxing, Careem is itself reported to be the subject of a potential takeover bid by US ride-hailing giant Uber in a deal that could value it at $2 billion or more.
Founded in 2015, by six IIIT Hyderabad graduates, Commut has been funded by UK-Based Shell-Foundation and 50K Ventures and its bus shuttle service has been operating in Hyderabad since November 2015. To date, they’ve made over 750,000 trips within more than 100 existing routes and are the third-largest transportation app in India. The six co-founders of Commut are -- Charan Thota, Hemanth Reddy Jonnalagadda, Prasanth Garapati, Sandeep Kachavarapu and Srujai Varikuti.
Prasanth Garapati, CEO of Commut, said: “We built Commut with the mission to touch and improve people’s lives by offering an economical, comfortable, safe and tech-enabled mass transit solution. Our mission is in line with Careem’s of providing users with a safe, reliable, affordable and convenient means of transportation for people. Joining Careem and building the mass transportation vertical will help us in fulfilling our mission at a much larger scale”.
To recall, Careeem had also acquired Savaree, a Lahore,Pakistan-based cab service startup, in March 2016
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