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Zoomcar Holdings, Inc.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: ZCAR
IndustryCar rental
FoundedFebruary 2013; 11 years ago (2013-02)
Founders
  • Greg Moran
  • David Back
HeadquartersBangalore, Karnataka, India
Areas served
India, South East Asia, Middle East and North Africa[1]
ServicesCarsharing
RevenueDecrease US$9.9 million (2023)[2]
Websitewww.zoomcar.com

Zoomcar is an Indian carsharing platform, headquartered in Bangalore. Founded in 2013 by David Back and Greg Moran,[3] it currently operates in more than 34 cities.[4]

History

[edit]

American duo[5] David Back and Greg Moran met while studying at the University of Pennsylvania,[6] where both graduated in 2007. After graduating, Back studied at Harvard Law School[7] and Moran worked on energy financing projects.[8] The pair also attended business school; Moran at the University of Southern California and Back at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.

Back and Moran both dropped out of business school to move to India and pursue a venture in car rentals.[9] Zoom officially launched operations in Bangalore in February 2013 using JustShareIt platform.[10] Zoom started with $215,000 in capital and a fleet of seven cars.[11]

In May 2015, Back resigned from the company, and moved back to the US citing personal reasons.[12]

In December 2023, Zoomcar merged with Innovative International Acquisition Corporation (IOAC), a special-purpose acquisition company, to become listed on the Nasdaq as Zoomcar Holdings Inc.[13]

In June 2024, CEO Greg Moran was fired months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had flagged concerns about the company's revenue projections.[14]

Investors

[edit]

Zoom initially raised capital from individual investors including Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers,[15] Chair of the UK Institute of Directors Lady Barbara Judge,[16] Vice-Dean of International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School William P. Alford,[17] Wharton Statistics Chair Edward George,[18] and the former Director of the Cambridge Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies Shai Vyakarnam.[19] Back met Summers at Harvard University, where Back was a teaching assistant to Summers.[20]

Zoomcar's institutional investors include: Mahindra & Mahindra,[21] Ford Motor Company,[22] Sequoia Capital,[23] Nokia Growth Partners,[24] FundersClub,[25] Basset Investment Group,[26] Athene Capital,[citation needed] Empire Angels, VentureSouq,[27] OurCrowd,[28] Globevestor.,[29] and Cyber Carrier CL.[30] Zoomcar has also raised money from former Infosys CFO T.V. Mohandas Pai and his business partner Abhay Jain.

Competition

[edit]

Zoomcar faces competition from Revv Cars, Drivezy, MylesCars (backed by Carzonrent), Ola Drive by (Ola Cabs) and other similar car rental companies.

Partnerships

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Zoom partnered with the auto manufacturers like Ford & Mahindra which allowed them to become the first car rental company in India to offer an electric vehicle (the Mahindra REVA E2O by Mahindra) and the Ford EcoSport "urban SUV by Ford" in 2013.[31] Zoom also works with locally established real estate developers, universities, hotels, and corporate IT parks to secure parking for its vehicles and offer pick-up points to its members.[32]

In November 2013, Zoom, Uber, and the Ashoka Foundation launched a month-long campaign in Bangalore called RideSmartBLR to encourage car-rental and discourage drunk driving for its health, economical and environmental benefits.[33]

Zoom was a member of Microsoft's Accelerator Plus program in Bangalore in Spring 2014.[34] This program is designed to provide more tailored assistance to later-stage start-ups as they scale their business and raise capital.[35]

Opposition

[edit]

In July 2015, Zoomcar issued caution information to its customers following opposition from the Ladakh taxi union. Following an incident in which a convoy of 15 cars rented from the company was reportedly attacked by members of the union with stones and iron rods, Zoomcar issued a cautionary mail to customers traveling to Khardung La and Nubra valley.[36] The following week Zoom issued an update stating that the situation had aggravated and the company urged extreme caution to customers traveling to the region.[37] The taxi unions of Gulmarg and Ladakh continue to resist entry of non-local commercial cars in the region.[38]

Controversies

[edit]

Banned advertisement

[edit]

In December 2015, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) banned 54 controversial Indian ads which included a video advertisement by Zoomcar.[39] The ad was found to be in violation of India's Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 by the council, following which the advertisement was pulled off by the company.

Data breach

[edit]

In July 2018, Zoomcar suffered a data breach exposing more the data of more than 3.5 million users including names, email and IP addresses, phone numbers and passwords.[40]

Illegally renting whiteboard cars

[edit]

Post covid, Zoomcar doesn't own and operate any cars on its own in India and has shifted to marketplace model, where private car owners (hosts) list their cars on Zoomcar, Zoomcar rents them to its customers, keeps a cut from earning and passes the rest to vehicle owners. Commercial use of whiteboard car is illegal in India.[41]

Breaches of refund policy

[edit]

In the year 2020, Zoomcar breached its refund policy of providing refunds within 7–14 days, extended it to 30 days but still haven't refunded their customers, some of whom have been waiting for more than 8 months as of 3 November 2020.[42] A lot of their customers took to different social media websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to report this issue. Their CEO, Greg Moran, when questioned about this stated that he isn't aware of any breach of policy from their side.[43] Zoomcar has been replying to their customers' tweets saying that the refund will be processed soon without giving any confirmation on date and time.

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Zoomcar's Loss More Than Halves To INR 74 Cr In FY22, Operating Revenue Up 1.2X YoY". Inc42. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Investor Presentation Mar 2024" (PDF). Zoomcar. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  3. ^ "14 startups to look forward to in 2014". The Economic Times. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  4. ^ "Zoomcar resumes operations in 35 cities after easing of lockdown restrictions". The Economic Times. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  5. ^ "Business News, India Stock Market, Personal Finance, IPO, Financial News Headlines - The Financial Express". Financialexpress.com. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  6. ^ "High-tech entrepreneurs flock to India". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  7. ^ "President's challenge finalists selected". The Crimson.
  8. ^ Radhika Koppanur. "Zoom Creates Self Drive Car Market Segment in India". vyapaari.in. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  9. ^ Mark Bergen (8 August 2013). "Indian Drivers Attract Larry Summers". Wall Street Journal India. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  10. ^ Pranbihanga Borpuzari (23 March 2013). "Zoom Inc. lets its customers enjoy the benefits of using a car without having to own it". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  11. ^ "Attacking a $3 billion rent a car market". forbes.com. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  12. ^ Ambre, Ashna (29 May 2015). "Zoomcar co-founder David Back resigns". www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  13. ^ "Zoomcar merges with Innovative International Acquisition Corporation". The Economic Times. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  14. ^ "Bengaluru-based Zoomcar terminates Greg Moran as CEO amid concerns over revenue projections". Business Today. 27 June 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  15. ^ "Larry Summers fuels Bangalore car hire startup". Times of India. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Self-drive car rental startup Zoom raises $215K in angel funding; targets $3B rent-a-car market". Techcircle.vccircle.com. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  17. ^ "Microsoft Accelerator - Global Startup Stories: ZoomCar". Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  18. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". Techinasia.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  19. ^ Punit, Itika Sharma. "How two Americans zoomed into India's car rental market — Quartz". qz.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  20. ^ Mark Bergen (8 August 2013). "Indian Drivers Attract Larry Summers". Wall Street Journal India.
  21. ^ "India's Zoomcar raises $40M led by automotive giant Mahindra & Mahindra". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  22. ^ "Ford leads $24M investment in India-based vehicle rental company Zoomcar – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  23. ^ "Self-drive car sharing company Zoomcar raises $8 million venture funding led by Sequoia Capital - timesofindia-economictimes". Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  24. ^ "News". Nokiagrowrthpartners.com. 26 August 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  25. ^ "FundersClub". fundersclub.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  26. ^ "Empire Angels leads round for Indian car rental startup Zoomcar - PE Hub". Pehub.com. 3 October 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  27. ^ Sabharwal, Punita (27 May 2018). "How Zoomcar Took Over The Indian Roads". Entrepreneur.
  28. ^ "OurCrowd > Zoomcar". Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  29. ^ "We will invest in 10-12 startups this year: Ankur Shrivastava of crowdfunding site Globevestor". Techcircle.vccircle.com. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  30. ^ Chakraborty, Sayan (20 December 2016). "Zoomcar raises funds from Chinese VC firm Cyber Carrier". Livemint.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  31. ^ "Zoom Chooses Ford to Pioneer Innovative Car Rental Service in India". @Fordonline. 24 April 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  32. ^ "Featured Member : Greg Moran". TIE Bangalore Chapter.
  33. ^ Shilpa Phadnis (21 November 2013). "ZoomCar, Uber launch smart riding campaign in Bangalore". The Times Of India. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  34. ^ Mishra, Pankaj (11 February 2014). "Microsoft Accelerator Launches New Program For Late Stage Startups In India". TechCrunch.
  35. ^ Economictimes.com (11 February 2014). "16 tech startups selected for Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Program's latest batch". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  36. ^ "Updated: Zoomcar & Myles advise caution after Ladakh taxi union revolts against self-drive rental cars". MediaNama. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  37. ^ ""The situation has aggravated"; Zoomcar advises extreme caution as taxi unions damage cars in Ladakh". MediaNama. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  38. ^ "Self drive rental service cos offer a string of benefits". www.businesstoday.in. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  39. ^ "ASCI bans 54 ads, including HUL, Godrej, Marico, Airtel 4G, Flipkart, Bennett Coleman & Co, HT Media, Shoppers Stop, HDFC Bank, Max Bupa, in September - Moneylife". www.moneylife.in. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  40. ^ Kar, Sanghamitra (23 May 2020). "Data of 3.5 million Zoomcar customers up for sale". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  41. ^ Kar, Sanghamitra (4 December 2022). "Karnataka Transport authority listens to complains against Zoomcar". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  42. ^ Suresh, Haripriya (11 July 2020). "Zoomcar flooded with complaints over pending refunds due to lockdown". Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  43. ^ Kritti (7 July 2020). "Customer Money Stuck In Refunds, But Zoomcar CEO 'Unaware'". Inc24. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
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