The founder of Advantedge writes Rapido addressed a critical gap with a sustainable, cost-effective, capital-efficient, and highly scalable solution in a hyper-competitive space
India has an astronomical number of two-wheelers. Therenare about over 250 million registered two-wheelers on our roads.
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When we looked at the Indian shared mobility landscape, everyone was focussed on cars—only because they worked in all the other markets, including the US and China. Uber and Ola had raised colossal amounts of capital and were duking it out. But at AdvantEdge, we saw something different, something fundamental to India: An untapped, massive opportunity in creating a new category—bike taxis.
India has an astronomical number of two-wheelers. We’re talking about over 250 million registered two-wheelers on our roads. This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a cultural and economic reality. For the vast majority of Indians, a bike isn’t a luxury; it’s the primary mode of transport. Compare that to the roughly 45 to 50 million cars, and you instantly see the scale of the two-wheeler market is 5x that of cars.
Despite this massive ownership, the utilisation levels of these two-wheelers were historically very low, around 12 percent. People used their bikes for personal commutes, but for significant portions of the day, these assets sat idle. Even when the two-wheeler was being used, 70 percent of the time the rear seat was empty.
This immediately signalled an opportunity for a platform that could monetise this latent capacity. We also saw a glaring need for supplementary income. Unemployment and underemployment are persistent challenges across various demographics in India. An estimated 20 percent of two-wheeler owners (approximately 50 million) were unemployed, students or working part time. Many of them, particularly young men, were looking for flexible ways to earn. Rapido offered just that—a simple way to leverage an existing asset to generate income, without the high barrier to entry of buying a commercial car which Uber and Ola demanded.
What truly resonated with us about Rapido was also their asset-light model. As a mobility-focussed VC (venture capital firm), we firmly believed in backing platforms that didn’t need to own the assets. Rapido’s approach of onboarding existing two-wheeler owners as ‘captains’ was brilliant. It meant they could scale rapidly without the enormous capital expenditure and operational headaches that come with managing a massive fleet of vehicles. This translated to lower operational costs and faster expansion, which is a stark contrast to the heavy investments we saw with cars.
(This story appears in the 25 July, 2025 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)