loading
loading
In April 2016, a bike taxi startup barely a few months old persuaded some established names in Indian business to back the idea of sharing a motorcycle ride. Hero MotoCorp's Pawan Munjal, Google's Rajan Anandan and People Group founder Anupam Mittal were among the investors in Rapido's pre-Series A round. Its founders, Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli and Rishikesh SR, had early evidence that the idea could find takers. The funding would help them take the service to more cities and build the team. The trio's earlier logistics venture, Karrier, had shut down. This time, the proposition was simple. A motorcycle had a spare seat, its owner could use some extra income, and someone nearby needed an affordable ride. Rapido's app would bring them together, handling bookings, fare estimates, matching and tracking. The founders could build a transport business without buying the vehicles themselves. More than a decade after its founding, that spare seat has become the starting point for a much larger business, putting the mobility unicorn on the super app track. Rapido says it now facilitates over 5 Mn rides a day, operates across more than 400 cities and supports over 9 Mn livelihoods. In April 2025, Sanka had separately put its network at 2 Mn transacting bike taxi partners every month. It has evolved from a bike-taxi platform into a broader, technology-enabled mobility and delivery ecosystem. Its services now span bikes, autos and cabs, parcel and hyperlocal delivery, food delivery through Ownly, and travel bookings. That expansion has brought Rapido into closer competition with Ola and Uber, alongside regional alternatives such as Namma Yatri in Bengaluru, Yatri Sathi in Kolkata and Red Taxi across Tamil Nadu. However, Rapido's own estimates suggest it has carved out a sizable share of this crowded market. In an April 2025 interview, Sanka told Inc42 that it held 70% of India's bike taxi market, nearly 40% of auto rides and 22% of cab hailing. These were the company's estimates at the time. In the same interview, he outlined an IPO ambition over the following two to three years. Earlier this year, Rapido has also raised $240 Mn at a $3 Bn valuation. Before Ownly entered the picture, Rapido was already growing its revenue and reducing losses. In FY25, operating revenue rose 44.2% to ₹934.4 Cr, while net loss fell 30.3% to ₹258.4 Cr. That was the second consecutive year of narrowing losses. Rapido reported a net loss of ₹370 Cr in FY24, down 45.2% from ₹675 Cr in FY23, on operating revenue of ₹648.1 Cr. Revenue has therefore grown at a comparable rate two years running, 46.3% and then 44.2%. That makes the narrowing a trend rather than a single year's result. Although FY26 numbers are yet to be reported, Rapido's GMV grew 111% year-on-year in H1 FY26, according to Prosus' investor presentation. The business was gaining scale, but had yet to turn an annual profit. Ownly’s Bengaluru pilot began in 2025 and added another business to that pursuit. This brings Rapido into competition with Swiggy and Zomato. Like ride-hailing, the company leaned towards zero restaurant commission model for food delivery too, with customers paying separately for delivery. Rapido's argument is that it already has some of the infrastructure needed to fulfil those orders. "By integrating Ownly into the Rapido ecosystem, the company can leverage its existing technology, consumer base, and delivery network rather than building an entirely separate infrastructure," a spokesperson said. Rapido now plans to deepen businesses where demand is already strong while selectively building adjacent services that can benefit from its existing ecosystem, according to its spokesperson. The question is whether using the same network across more services will bring in enough additional income to cover the cost of those additions. In the past, we have looked at whether merely adding new services is enough for Rapido, as this results in a fragmented product proposition, which could open up risks of lower retention among active users. Ownly has added magicpin as a partner, and the CCI has dismissed a predatory pricing complaint against Rapido. In August 2026, a report of talks with Uber to combine India operations, which Rapido denied, put the same question over the whole portfolio. For a company still pursuing profitability, that is the test behind its widening portfolio. Who pays Rapido across these businesses, what do they pay for, and how much of that money stays with the company? Rapido's Mobility Subscription Bet Rapido began with a commission model, taking a share of the fare on each ride booked through its platform. The model is well understood and has been in play since Uber first arrived on the scene. But for drivers (Captains as Rapido calls them), that meant giving up part of the fare on every trip, even as they continued to pay for fuel and vehicle maintenance. When it launched its cabs service in 2023 and then autos in 2024, the company started with a zero-commission proposition, giving driver greater control over their earnings. Drivers pay a daily fee to be able to accept unlimited rides. The commercial logic was straightforward: drivers who kept more of the total fare earned would have a stronger reason to join and continue using Rapido. Why does this work? Well, understand it like this. Under a fixed subscription, a driver pays for platform access rather than surrendering a percentage of every fare. For example, a ₹30 daily fee works out to ₹3 per ride over ten rides, but ₹1.50 over twenty. These are hypothetical figures, but they explain the attraction: drivers For Rapido, the trade-off is that a busier driver does not automatically pay more under the same fixed plan. Those additional rides can instead make the subscription worth renewing. However, in the near future, growing this income depends on how many drivers pay, what their plans cost and how consistently they renew. A large registered network alone cannot establish any of those things, and subscription collections must still cover technology, support, marketing and other operating expenses. This explains why the next step in mobility is closely tied to making existing markets and networks work better. Rapido is also no longer alone in offering it. Uber launched a SaaS-based zero-commission model in February 2025, and Ola followed with a subscription of its own. Industry stakeholders and analysts believe the shift at Ola and Uber is less about empowering drivers and more about staying relevant. That leaves the subscription as a price the category now shares, rather than a lever that only Rapido has. Deliveries Put The Network To Another Use As a Rapido spokesperson said: "Parcel and hyperlocal delivery are natural extensions of Rapido's existing network, creating additional use cases for the same supply infrastructure while providing more earning opportunities for Captains." When the pandemic disrupted passenger travel, Rapido found another use for its drivers: moving goods. By June 2020, it had expanded Rapido Local to Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad for food, grocery and medicine deliveries, and worked with retailers including BigBasket and Spencer's. It also launched Rapido Stores for businesses needing deliveries, onboarding more than 200 small and medium enterprises at the time. An order no longer had to originate on Rapido for its network to earn from moving it. That business now extends to companies Rapido also competes with. In a March 2026 interview, Sanka said its network handled deliveries for Swiggy, Zomato, ecommerce and quick-commerce platforms, and identified ONDC as a major client. The distinction matters: Ownly competes for the customer's food order, while Rapido's logistics business can fulfil an order placed elsewhere. There are two ways to look at the money. For business deliveries, the merchant or platform buys a logistics service, with Rapido's earnings governed by the commercial agreement. A customer booking a parcel pickup is a different arrangement. Rapido's customer terms, under Section III, clause 13, describe drivers as providing package services through its platform. The amount paid to move a parcel is therefore not automatically the amount Rapido earns. The company has not disclosed the contract rates or margins needed to put a number on either arrangement. The potential saving lies in giving an existing driver more work across the day. That could reduce idle time and spread the cost of maintaining the network across more jobs, although it depends on orders arriving where drivers are available. A delivery still has to be worth doing. Two jobs paying the same amount can produce very different earnings if one involves a long pickup, a wait at the restaurant or a return journey without another booking. For drivers, the test is earnings after expenses for the time spent; for Rapido, it is what remains after paying for fulfillment and support. Its responses do not disclose delivery margins or measured gains in driver earnings from switching between services. The opportunity is clear, but the financial benefit remains unquantified. Ownly Changes Who Pays With Ownly, Rapido is adding another vertical to its super app play by offering restaurant selection, handling ordering problems and giving people a reason to switch from apps they already use. But here's an interesting twist. During the Bengaluru pilot in August 2025, Inc42 reported a ₹25 restaurant charge per order, plus GST, while customer delivery fees were waived in the areas served. By July 2026, Ownly was offering zero restaurant commission, with customers paying separately for food and delivery. The restaurant receives the food payment; the delivery charge provides Rapido's route to income. That changes who pays for the service, but the delivery still costs money. A restaurant saving on commission may have room to lower its menu prices. For the customer, however, the comparison is the final bill, including delivery. A cheaper meal is less persuasive if the delivery fee wipes out the savings. Rapido is trying to make that bill work by bringing food ordering to people who already use its mobility services. In July 2026, it integrated Ownly into the main Rapido app and signed an agreement with the National Restaurant Association of India to strengthen restaurant engagement. These give it routes to reach both sides of the marketplace, although neither guarantees repeat orders. As a Rapido spokesperson said, "Rapido sees food delivery as an important adjacent opportunity. The zero-commission model is designed to address some of the structural challenges faced by restaurants, while Rapido's existing technology and delivery network provide an operational advantage. The focus is on building density, adoption, and sustainable unit economics as the model expands." In a March 2026 interview, Sanka said bike drivers could choose to accept food deliveries alongside passenger rides and parcel bookings. But using the same driver does not eliminate payment for the delivery. Rapido has not disclosed the detailed arrangement for collecting delivery charges and settling driver payments, so it would be premature to assume how much it retains. A hypothetical example explains the economics without assuming that payment arrangement. Suppose a customer pays ₹30 for delivery and ₹25 goes to the driver. Only ₹5 remains to cover payment processing, customer support and other expenses; it is not yet profit. If the driver needs ₹35 for that job, the ₹30 charge falls short by ₹5 before those expenses. The challenge is sharper for inexpensive meals. A ₹100 lunch can take as much time to deliver as a ₹400 order, but a large delivery charge makes the cheaper meal harder to sell. Having restaurants, customers and available drivers close together can reduce travel and waiting time, helping make each order less expensive to fulfil. Whether that advantage translates into profit will become clearer as Ownly scales, provided Rapido discloses enough detail to separate its performance from the wider business. FY27 financials could offer a fuller picture, but company-wide revenue growth alone would not establish whether food delivery is profitable. The competitive consequences are already visible. Swiggy, which led Rapido's $180 Mn round in 2022, approved a stake sale to Prosus and WestBridge for about ₹2,400 Cr in September 2025, following Rapido's entry into food ordering. Rapido was now competing for orders it had previously helped fulfil. Winning those orders is the next challenge; earning enough from delivering them will determine whether Ownly strengthens the business. Why The Super App Push Matters Rapido's travel push gives its super app ambition a concrete shape. In October 2025, it added a dedicated travel section through partnerships with Goibibo, redBus and ConfirmTkt, covering flights, hotels, buses and trains. At the time of the announcement, Rapido claimed 5 Cr active users and set an ambition to bring another 10 Cr users into digital travel. The partners supply the booking services; Rapido brings distribution. It resembles PhonePe's arrangement with ixigo, where a high frequency app becomes a sales channel for other businesses. As a Rapido spokesperson said: "Adjacent services including offerings such as flight bookings are part of the broader ambition to make Rapido a more comprehensive platform for everyday mobility and related needs." The company confirms that flight bookings generate revenue, but has not disclosed its fee or share of each booking. The opportunity is to earn at more points in a journey: from the travel reservation through a partner to the ride fulfilled by a driver. Whether customers actually book both remains to be demonstrated. Advertising already offers more specific examples of how Rapido sells access to its audience. Its 2025 advertising deck describes a Lufthansa campaign targeting frequent and business travellers, and a Sprite campaign placed around summer commutes. Advertisers can appear while customers search for a driver, wait for pickup or begin a ride, with targeting options including location, time and travel intent. Rapido also offers placements on its driver app, making drivers an audience for advertisers as well as providers of transport. These businesses add two distinct sources of income: travel bookings generate earnings under partner agreements, while brands pay for advertising placements. The latter can earn from a customer's visit even when they buy no additional service. Rapido has not disclosed either channel's revenue contribution, but the commercial direction is clearer: its super app push is creating more things to sell around the ride, including tickets, hotel bookings and advertising space. The Risk Of Regulation Regulation and safety remain two of Rapido's biggest challenges. Maharashtra's licensing disputes and Karnataka's bike-taxi restrictions show how quickly a service can lose access to a market. Karnataka's cab-aggregator licence gives its four-wheeler business permission to operate until August 2031, while the bike-taxi dispute has followed a separate legal path. For a company expanding across services, permission in one category does not settle the others. An interruption also weakens the economics of subscriptions. drivers need bookings to justify paying for access; passengers need available rides to keep opening the app. If either leaves, restarting operations can mean spending again to rebuild demand and driver availability. Tax decisions add another pressure: Karnataka's 2024 advance ruling on Rapido's cab services shows that a SaaS arrangement can still carry tax obligations that affect pricing and earnings. Keeping customers' trust requires investment, too. Inc42's September 2025 report documented complaints about fares, driver verification and support. Rapido's safety guidelines describe training, trip sharing, insurance and assistance, but their value depends on how consistently they work. These responsibilities will follow Rapido into every new market. Its next phase therefore comes down to where it can build a dependable service, attract repeat business and earn enough to sustain both. What Comes Next For Rapido? Rapido's expanding portfolio raises a question about priorities: how much attention and money will go into its established business, and how much into newer services? The company puts mobility first. The next phase will focus on depth, efficiency, and selective expansion - strengthening the core mobility network, improving technology and driver utilisation, and scaling adjacent businesses where Rapido's existing ecosystem provides a clear advantage. The aim is to build a sustainable, multi-modal platform with mobility at its core. Asked whether it would go deeper into existing businesses or expand horizontally, the spokesperson added: "Rapido sees these as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. The company intends to go deeper in its core mobility businesses while selectively expanding into adjacent categories where its technology, customer base, and driver network provide a structural advantage." The practical decision is where another investment can make the biggest difference, whether by improving an unreliable pickup, bringing more drivers online or adding a service customers need. The objective is not to add categories for the sake of expansion, but to identify areas where Rapido can solve a genuine customer or partner problem using infrastructure it has already built. Smaller cities remain central to that calculation. For Rapido, the biggest opportunity remains the continued formalisation and digitisation of everyday mobility across India, particularly beyond the metros. Rapido has built a presence across 400+ cities, with deep reach into Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. The focus is on strengthening this network and making mobility more accessible, affordable, and reliable rather than treating growth simply as a city-count exercise. That makes the quality of its presence as important as its geographical reach. A city already on the map can still offer room to grow through more reliable availability and more frequent bookings. Alongside that work, Rapido sees newer services becoming part of a connected business. "At the same time, businesses such as Ownly demonstrate how the underlying technology and network can be extended into adjacent categories. The long-term ambition is to build the 'Wheels of Bharat', a technology-led ecosystem where mobility, logistics, and related services reinforce one another," a Rapido spokesperson said. For a company with IPO ambitions, the next convincing evidence will be financial – which businesses can support themselves, and which still need money from elsewhere. Rapido began by finding an earning opportunity in a spare motorcycle seat. It has since found several more around the same customer and driver. The challenge now is deciding which deserves the next rupee of investment, and which can start paying for the company's future.
In April 2016, a bike taxi startup barely a few months old persuaded some established names in Indian business to back the idea of sharing a motorcycle ride. Hero MotoCorp's Pawan Munjal, Google's Rajan Anandan and People Group founder Anupam Mittal were among the investors in Rapido's pre-Series A round. Its founders, Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli and Rishikesh SR, had early evidence that the idea could find takers. The funding would help them take the service to more cities and build the team. The trio's earlier logistics venture, Karrier, had shut down. This time, the proposition was simple. A motorcycle had a spare seat, its owner could use some extra income, and someone nearby needed an affordable ride. Rapido's app would bring them together, handling bookings, fare estimates, matching and tracking. The founders could build a transport business without buying the vehicles themselves. More than a decade after its founding, that spare seat has become the starting point for a much larger business, putting the mobility unicorn on the super app track. Rapido says it now facilitates over 5 Mn rides a day, operates across more than 400 cities and supports over 9 Mn livelihoods. In April 2025, Sanka had separately put its network at 2 Mn transacting bike taxi partners every month. It has evolved from a bike-taxi platform into a broader, technology-enabled mobility and delivery ecosystem. Its services now span bikes, autos and cabs, parcel and hyperlocal delivery, food delivery through Ownly, and travel bookings. That expansion has brought Rapido into closer competition with Ola and Uber, alongside regional alternatives such as Namma Yatri in Bengaluru, Yatri Sathi in Kolkata and Red Taxi across Tamil Nadu. However, Rapido's own estimates suggest it has carved out a sizable share of this crowded market. In an April 2025 interview, Sanka told Inc42 that it held 70% of India's bike taxi market, nearly 40% of auto rides and 22% of cab hailing. These were the company's estimates at the time. In the same interview, he outlined an IPO ambition over the following two to three years. Earlier this year, Rapido has also raised $240 Mn at a $3 Bn valuation. Before Ownly entered the picture, Rapido was already growing its revenue and reducing losses. In FY25, operating revenue rose 44.2% to ₹934.4 Cr, while net loss fell 30.3% to ₹258.4 Cr. That was the second consecutive year of narrowing losses. Rapido reported a net loss of ₹370 Cr in FY24, down 45.2% from ₹675 Cr in FY23, on operating revenue of ₹648.1 Cr. Revenue has therefore grown at a comparable rate two years running, 46.3% and then 44.2%. That makes the narrowing a trend rather than a single year's result. Although FY26 numbers are yet to be reported, Rapido's GMV grew 111% year-on-year in H1 FY26, according to Prosus' investor presentation. The business was gaining scale, but had yet to turn an annual profit. Ownly’s Bengaluru pilot began in 2025 and added another business to that pursuit. This brings Rapido into competition with Swiggy and Zomato. Like ride-hailing, the company leaned towards zero restaurant commission model for food delivery too, with customers paying separately for delivery. Rapido's argument is that it already has some of the infrastructure needed to fulfil those orders. "By integrating Ownly into the Rapido ecosystem, the company can leverage its existing technology, consumer base, and delivery network rather than building an entirely separate infrastructure," a spokesperson said. Rapido now plans to deepen businesses where demand is already strong while selectively building adjacent services that can benefit from its existing ecosystem, according to its spokesperson. The question is whether using the same network across more services will bring in enough additional income to cover the cost of those additions. In the past, we have looked at whether merely adding new services is enough for Rapido, as this results in a fragmented product proposition, which could open up risks of lower retention among active users. Ownly has added magicpin as a partner, and the CCI has dismissed a predatory pricing complaint against Rapido. In August 2026, a report of talks with Uber to combine India operations, which Rapido denied, put the same question over the whole portfolio. For a company still pursuing profitability, that is the test behind its widening portfolio. Who pays Rapido across these businesses, what do they pay for, and how much of that money stays with the company? Rapido's Mobility Subscription Bet Rapido began with a commission model, taking a share of the fare on each ride booked through its platform. The model is well understood and has been in play since Uber first arrived on the scene. But for drivers (Captains as Rapido calls them), that meant giving up part of the fare on every trip, even as they continued to pay for fuel and vehicle maintenance. When it launched its cabs service in 2023 and then autos in 2024, the company started with a zero-commission proposition, giving driver greater control over their earnings. Drivers pay a daily fee to be able to accept unlimited rides. The commercial logic was straightforward: drivers who kept more of the total fare earned would have a stronger reason to join and continue using Rapido. Why does this work? Well, understand it like this. Under a fixed subscription, a driver pays for platform access rather than surrendering a percentage of every fare. For example, a ₹30 daily fee works out to ₹3 per ride over ten rides, but ₹1.50 over twenty. These are hypothetical figures, but they explain the attraction: drivers For Rapido, the trade-off is that a busier driver does not automatically pay more under the same fixed plan. Those additional rides can instead make the subscription worth renewing. However, in the near future, growing this income depends on how many drivers pay, what their plans cost and how consistently they renew. A large registered network alone cannot establish any of those things, and subscription collections must still cover technology, support, marketing and other operating expenses. This explains why the next step in mobility is closely tied to making existing markets and networks work better. Rapido is also no longer alone in offering it. Uber launched a SaaS-based zero-commission model in February 2025, and Ola followed with a subscription of its own. Industry stakeholders and analysts believe the shift at Ola and Uber is less about empowering drivers and more about staying relevant. That leaves the subscription as a price the category now shares, rather than a lever that only Rapido has. Deliveries Put The Network To Another Use As a Rapido spokesperson said: "Parcel and hyperlocal delivery are natural extensions of Rapido's existing network, creating additional use cases for the same supply infrastructure while providing more earning opportunities for Captains." When the pandemic disrupted passenger travel, Rapido found another use for its drivers: moving goods. By June 2020, it had expanded Rapido Local to Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad for food, grocery and medicine deliveries, and worked with retailers including BigBasket and Spencer's. It also launched Rapido Stores for businesses needing deliveries, onboarding more than 200 small and medium enterprises at the time. An order no longer had to originate on Rapido for its network to earn from moving it. That business now extends to companies Rapido also competes with. In a March 2026 interview, Sanka said its network handled deliveries for Swiggy, Zomato, ecommerce and quick-commerce platforms, and identified ONDC as a major client. The distinction matters: Ownly competes for the customer's food order, while Rapido's logistics business can fulfil an order placed elsewhere. There are two ways to look at the money. For business deliveries, the merchant or platform buys a logistics service, with Rapido's earnings governed by the commercial agreement. A customer booking a parcel pickup is a different arrangement. Rapido's customer terms, under Section III, clause 13, describe drivers as providing package services through its platform. The amount paid to move a parcel is therefore not automatically the amount Rapido earns. The company has not disclosed the contract rates or margins needed to put a number on either arrangement. The potential saving lies in giving an existing driver more work across the day. That could reduce idle time and spread the cost of maintaining the network across more jobs, although it depends on orders arriving where drivers are available. A delivery still has to be worth doing. Two jobs paying the same amount can produce very different earnings if one involves a long pickup, a wait at the restaurant or a return journey without another booking. For drivers, the test is earnings after expenses for the time spent; for Rapido, it is what remains after paying for fulfillment and support. Its responses do not disclose delivery margins or measured gains in driver earnings from switching between services. The opportunity is clear, but the financial benefit remains unquantified. Ownly Changes Who Pays With Ownly, Rapido is adding another vertical to its super app play by offering restaurant selection, handling ordering problems and giving people a reason to switch from apps they already use. But here's an interesting twist. During the Bengaluru pilot in August 2025, Inc42 reported a ₹25 restaurant charge per order, plus GST, while customer delivery fees were waived in the areas served. By July 2026, Ownly was offering zero restaurant commission, with customers paying separately for food and delivery. The restaurant receives the food payment; the delivery charge provides Rapido's route to income. That changes who pays for the service, but the delivery still costs money. A restaurant saving on commission may have room to lower its menu prices. For the customer, however, the comparison is the final bill, including delivery. A cheaper meal is less persuasive if the delivery fee wipes out the savings. Rapido is trying to make that bill work by bringing food ordering to people who already use its mobility services. In July 2026, it integrated Ownly into the main Rapido app and signed an agreement with the National Restaurant Association of India to strengthen restaurant engagement. These give it routes to reach both sides of the marketplace, although neither guarantees repeat orders. As a Rapido spokesperson said, "Rapido sees food delivery as an important adjacent opportunity. The zero-commission model is designed to address some of the structural challenges faced by restaurants, while Rapido's existing technology and delivery network provide an operational advantage. The focus is on building density, adoption, and sustainable unit economics as the model expands." In a March 2026 interview, Sanka said bike drivers could choose to accept food deliveries alongside passenger rides and parcel bookings. But using the same driver does not eliminate payment for the delivery. Rapido has not disclosed the detailed arrangement for collecting delivery charges and settling driver payments, so it would be premature to assume how much it retains. A hypothetical example explains the economics without assuming that payment arrangement. Suppose a customer pays ₹30 for delivery and ₹25 goes to the driver. Only ₹5 remains to cover payment processing, customer support and other expenses; it is not yet profit. If the driver needs ₹35 for that job, the ₹30 charge falls short by ₹5 before those expenses. The challenge is sharper for inexpensive meals. A ₹100 lunch can take as much time to deliver as a ₹400 order, but a large delivery charge makes the cheaper meal harder to sell. Having restaurants, customers and available drivers close together can reduce travel and waiting time, helping make each order less expensive to fulfil. Whether that advantage translates into profit will become clearer as O
document fetched 2026-09-12 02:59 · canonical https://inc42.com/features/how-rapidos-super-app-model-is-taking-shape