Representative image of a Rapido captain.
Credit: DH File Photo
New Delhi: Ride hailing firm Rapido on Tuesday announced its foray into the cab services segment, where it will compete with established unicorns Ola and Uber.
The company has started the service in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru with around 1.2 lakh cabs and plans to scale it to around 35 cities by September 2024.
Rapido Co-founder Pavan Guntupalli said, "Over the course of 10 years not more than 25 per cent are participating in app based services. Our motive is to bring all these guys online and increase the market."
"With a zero commission model, we will maximise their revenues in a way that it is not a burden on users," Guntupalli said.
The captains or the driver partners will get direct payment from customers without any commission cut by Rapido.
However, they will have to pay a subscription fee after crossing a certain level of earnings.
While the company claimed that it will provide the lowest price in the market, a random check on the app showed that the fare of Rapido cab was higher compared to the prices offered by the established online players.
Guntupalli said that the service has just been launched and the company will work with cab partners to get the cheapest fare across 80 per cent of the route in the city where it operates.
Software-as-a-service-based Rapido will invest in adding electric vehicles to its fleet but it will operate rest of cab services at break-even level, he said.
The company plans to expand the services to Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai in January-March 2024 and cover a total of 35 cities by September 2024, Guntupalli said.