Zoomcar eyes a shortcut to 130 million users — partners with Ixigo

• Zoomcar is partnering with Ixigo, an online travel booking service, to reach its 130 million users.
  
• Co-found of Ixigo Rajnish Kumar predicts that car rentals with be "one of the biggest travel trends this year."
  
• The partnership will help Zoomcar meet its goal to double the demand of its services by the end of the current fiscal year.
  

Zoomcar, a self drive car rental service, just announced that it's partnering with Ixigo reach more users while betting on car rentals to be a travel trend this year.

The partnership will give Zoomcar access to Ixigo's 130 million users as well as the latter's 200 million monthly travel searches as users plan their vacation. "Indian travellers are increasingly opting for a holistic and exclusive vacation experience making on-demand car rentals one of the biggest travel trends of the year," stated Co-founder of Ixigo Rajnish Kumar.

Zoomcar has 10,000 cars with plans to expand its fleet to 25,000 cars by the end of year. It also plans to double the demand for its services by the end of the current fiscal. Currently, Zoomcar has 4.8 million users and clocks over 3,000 rides daily.

As an incentive, Zoomcar is also offering a launch discount of 20% on bookings through Ixigo. Users can book a Zoomcar for an hour, a day, a week or even a whole month.

Car rentals in India

While the market for car rentals in India is growing, it's not quite mainstream yet.

"Such collaborations, we believe, will pave the way for the mainstreaming of alternative mobility services, ensuring that users get a seamless experience," said Greg Moran, CEO and Co-Founder of Zoomcar.

Last year, Zoomcar raised $40 million through Series-C round headed by Mahindra and Mahindra Limited. Sequoia Capital, Empire Angles and Nokia Growth Partners are also a part of the investor portfolio.

"We are looking at closing the Series D round by the second half of this year," Moran told CNBC TV18,

Zoomcar started off by owning the cars that it was renting out but switched over an asset light model when it realised that the maintenance and and owning costs were having a heavy impact on its margins.

So, the company introduced peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace called 'ZAP' where users can put up their own cars to be rented by other users on the platform.

Even so, Zoomcar registered ₹116 crore in loss during last fiscal year's earnings, according to its financial data filed with the Registrar of Companies. But its revenue also showed a yearly growth of 31% from ₹120 crore in FY17 to ₹158 crore in FY18.

Zoomcar is also pushing electric vehicles (EVs) on its platform in partnership with Tata Tigor expressing its support for the Indian government's initiative to convert all vehicles to EVs by 2030.

See also:
Ola will race Zoomcar in self-drive car rentals with a $500 million bet

Self-drive car in India will supersede high volume sales of cars. Here's how.

Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato and others partner with Delhi government to deliver via electric vehicles