Uber, the world’s largest ride-hailing company, led a $20 million funding round for the mobility startup Everest Fleet. The business had previously raised nearly $8 million in equity funding over three rounds.
According to a press release from the company, the additional funds will allow Everest Fleet to grow its operations and increase the overall supply pool available for the ridesharing industry, where demand continues to outpace vehicle supply.
With the most recent funding, Uber also makes one of its first-ever direct investments in a startup in India. After Zomato acquired the Indian operations of UberEats in January 2020, the ride-hailing giant became a shareholder in that company. In contrast, Uber ended its relationship with Zomato in August 2022.
Uber teamed up with EV companies Everest Fleet, Lithium Urban Technologies, and Moove last month to deploy 25,000 electric cars through its platform in India over the course of the next two years.
Everest Fleet, which was established in 2016 and operates in India’s shared mobility market, is already a partner of firms like Uber and Ola. According to the business, it is also the biggest professionally managed fleet supplier in the nation for Uber.
“This funding round will accelerate our transition from being a CNG-dominated fleet to one with CNG and electric vehicles in the next 5 years. By 2026, we aim to have 10,000 electric vehicles as part of our overall fleet,” Everest Fleet co-founder Siddharth Ladsariya said in a statement.
Currently operating in seven cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, Everest Fleet employs over 10,000 drivers. With the most recent investment, the company also hopes to expand into more Indian cities and eventually establish a global presence.
Everest Fleet’s fiscal year that ended in March 2022 saw strong financial performance. In the same time frame, the company’s scale increased 3.1X to Rs 113 crore from Rs 36 crore in FY21. Significantly, it also started to make money, posting profits of Rs 11.7 crore in FY22 versus a loss of Rs 1.97 crore in FY21.
