Noida based startup, AHA Taxis [a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd], India’s leading online aggregator for outstation travel, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding from ah! Ventures and Lead Angels Network. The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach to newer geographies, and further strengthen the operations and service offering to customers.
The IIT-IIM team led venture, AHA Taxis is set out to make inter-city travel easy, convenient and enable a user to save 40~50% on outstation taxis in over 350 cities across India, with 24*7 availability on mobile and web.
Amit Grover, Founder of AHA Taxis said
Three years back, we set out to solve a uniquely Indian problem of affordable and available outstation taxis. I am proud to have built a solution which caters to thousands of customers and drivers every day. Our investors’ show of confidence in our approach, despite the presence of biggies like Ola/Uber, is a big positive.
Traditionally, inter-city taxi operators charge a return fare from customers even for one-way trips, as they are not assured of passengers on the return journey. AHA Taxis addresses the issue of double fare charges for outstation taxi travel by integrating technology, marketing and operational efficiency, leading to a highly viable alternative to trains and buses.
Giving an investors’ perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founding Partner & CEO of ah! Ventures, said
Since ah! Ventures’ seed round investment in AHA Taxi, the company has grown over 10X to 1,000 cities and 10,000 routes. Besides, despite the immense competition through applications such as Ola and Uber, AHA Taxi has created their own space and doing consistently well in maintaining the set standards and providing satisfaction to their customers. The positive reactions from their customers is a clear indication that AHA Taxi is on the right track and will create their own niche space in the near future. We are positive of their service offering & technology and also of their ability to create significant shareholder value.
In 2015, AHA Taxi had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from ah! Ventures platform. Besides ah! Ventures now backing them again in the current Pre Series-A round, more new investors from Lead Angels Network have also participated.
Sushanto Mitra, Founder – Lead Angels Network, said
The estimated $12B market of inter-city taxi services market has seen many causalities, however, with their focus on unit economics and frugal operations AHA Taxi has ensured its place in this high potential market.
Post it’s seed funding round in 2015, AHA Taxis has grown 10X on key metrics and already achieved operational break-even on monthly basis. Its taxi network today covers far-flung areas including Haldwani, Kasol, Kharagpur, Rameswaram, Somnath apart from all metros. AHA Taxis has developed key technologies for automatic driver allocation, auto-pricing, vehicle tracking, number masking and all of this has been done by its in-house technology team.