When we looked at the Indian shared mobility landscape, everyone was focussed on cars—only because they worked in all the other markets, including the US and China. Uber and Ola had raised colossal amounts of capital and were duking it out. But at AdvantEdge, we saw something different, something fundamental to India: An untapped, massive opportunity in creating a new category—bike taxis.
India has an astronomical number of two-wheelers. We’re talking about over 250 million registered two-wheelers on our roads. This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a cultural and economic reality. For the vast majority of Indians, a bike isn’t a luxury; it’s the primary mode of transport. Compare that to the roughly 45 to 50 million cars, and you instantly see the scale of the two-wheeler market is 5x that of cars.
Despite this massive ownership, the utilisation levels of these two-wheelers were historically very low, around 12 percent. People used their bikes for personal commutes, but for significant portions of the day, these assets sat idle. Even when the two-wheeler was being used, 70 percent of the time the rear seat was empty.
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