Two Wheeler EV Startup VOGO Eyes Normalcy By Year End

Bengaluru based VOGO, a tech-enabled, self-ride two-wheeler rental service, has announced that it has recovered 40% of the Pre-COVID revenues in Hyderabad since the resumption of its services post lockdown, and intends to be back on the growth trajectory by the end of 2020. The company is also planning to introduce EV fleets to provide sustainable mobility solutions to daily commuters in the city.

VOGO started its operations in Hyderabad in 2017 with 10 employees and 100 bikes in 7 clusters, after launching in Bengaluru. The company claims to have grown exponentially in past 3 years and today has presence in over 100 zones with 3000 two-wheelers onboard at present. VOGO, which currently has over 100 employees in Hyderabad, says it has served over 3 lakh riders. The company says it has witnessed strong month on month recovery post-lockdown and is expecting 25% monthly growth in August 2020.

Talking about this development Anand Ayyadurai, Co-founder & CEO, VOGO said, “With the dense railway connectivity and a home to majority of IT professionals, Hyderabad has always been a promising city for us. We have been trying to provide a flexible, safe and affordable mobility option to the commuters. With our commitment to offer EVs in the city, we want to encourage the commuters to move towards a cleaner mobility option that will help us to reinstate the cleaner environment we cherished during the lockdown. We believe it will strengthen our presence in the city.”

Additionally, to ensure that customers enjoy a safe ride, the company maintains a 4-step sanitization process (including anti-microbial scrub) for all scooters. The company is also offering sanitization kits to their customers which includes hand sanitizer, gloves, solutions to sanitize the bike and a cleaning cloth. People will also be able to extend/renew the bike rental service online itself.

To support commuters with first and last mile connectivity, VOGO has also partnered with L&T, HMRL for metro connectivity.

EV startups in India, especially in the two wheeler space, have gone with a localised strategy for launch in many cases, expanding at the seed with which they can ensure decent support infrastructure too, be it charging stations or even battery swapping options. That is one reason we see city wise firms for now, though it would be safe to say that eventually, the industry will seek consolidation, as more and more of these firms evolve to serving larger markets. The second factor of course is the trial of multiple business models, from rentals, to purchases, to  leasing. due mainly to the higher cost of EVs.

VOGO itself is styled as a personal mobility solution provider that offers flexible, affordable and reliable two-wheeler rides to daily commuters. Launched in 2016 by the alumni of IITs and IIMs – Anand Ayyadurai, Padmanabhan Balakrishnan and Sanchit Mittal, the firm has focused on creating a platform for its riders and enable them to rent a two-wheeler anytime, anywhere.

With its presence in Bangalore and Hyderabad, VOGO claims to have over 20,000+ bikes and 500+ docking stations.  The company  claims user rides of 45,000 rides per day. VOGO is backed by leading investors like LGT Lightstone, Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, Kalaari and Ola, the ride-hailing platform.