Most bike taxi ventures shut operations

BENGALURU: Bike taxis are popular in Indonesia and Thailand, where they weave through traffic jams to get people around in a fraction of the time a cab takes.

But in India, bike taxis are finding it tough. Most of the players in major markets like Bengaluru and Gurugram, that started over the past few years, have shut down.

While only a few states provide for commercial bike taxi licenses, the lack of clarity on regulations is not the only reason for these failures. The poorly funded local players have not been able to match the heavy subsidies to customers and drivers by players like Uber and Ola, which makes them unattractive to both segments.

Also, the market itself does not appear to be growing rapidly, probably the reason why Uber and Ola too do not seem to be taking the segment seriously.

Haryana provides a commercial bike taxi license, but most players in the state including Yaya, Dot, TuWheelz, Rideji, have stopped operations. Two - Bikxie and Mtaxi - have shifted focus to deliveries. Baxi, founded in November 2015 by Manu Rana and Ashutosh Johri, looks to be among the last ones standing. In Bengaluru, companies like Headlyt, Heybob, and Zingo have shut down.

Even Uber has gone cold in cities like Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, where it launched bike services with great fanfare.

"We were not able to make progress with regulators for appropriate regulations. We continue to have conversations and whenever the time is right, we will relaunch bikes," Uber India president Amit Jain told TOI. He added that the company plans for a relaunch in Bengaluru soon.

Heybob founder Vishal BM told TOI soon after the venture closed that they tried moving from a consumer business to a business-to-business model."But it was too late, as we ran out of cash. With investor sentiments down, we were helpless," he said.

Baxi and Rapido have secured funding. Rapido has raised money from angel investors, including Google India MD Rajan Anandan.