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Decoding Rapido’s $120 Mn unicorn round

Entrackr · 3m

Mobility startup Rapido recently turned unicorn after raising $120 million in a Series E funding round from WestBridge Capital through its various investment vehicles including SETU AIF and Konark. While the firm didn’t announce the funding officially, Entrackr has sifted through its regulatory filings to decode every detail of the round which was entirely led by WestBridge —an uncommon deal in the ecosystem. The board at Rapido has passed a special resolution to issue 10 equity, 95,479 Series E, and 95,489 Series E1 compulsory convertible preferred shares at Rs 52,467 each to raise Rs 1,002 crore (approximately $120 million) from WestBridge Capital through its 3 investment vehicles including SETU AIF, Konark, and MMPL Trust. Notably, shares issued worth Rs 501 crore were fully paid-up shares while the other 50% is partly-paid up. This essentially means that Rapido will receive the partly paid amount (Rs 501 crore) in tranches. Rapido will use the proceeds for expansion and growth, as per filings. According to the startup data intelligence platform, TheKredible’s estimates, Rapido was valued at around Rs 8,517 crore (approximately $1.02 billion) in the series E round. With this investment, WestBridge remained the largest external stakeholder with 32.88%, followed by Swiggy and Nexus Ventures, which own 12.32% and 8.19%, respectively. See TheKredibe for the complete shareholding pattern. Rapido also claimed to have left Ola behind and became the number two player after Uber in the overall ride-hailing space (bike, auto, and cabs). As of March 2024, Uber processed 19.3 lakh rides on a daily basis while Rapido did 16.5 lakh rides a day followed by Ola which did 13 lakh rides, as per Rapido’s internal documents reviewed by Entrackr. While Rapido is yet to disclose FY24 numbers, the firm’s operating revenue surged 3X to Rs 443 crore during FY23. The steep growth in scale also caused a 54% spike in losses, which stood at Rs 675 crore in FY23.