FreshBus raises ₹26 Crores Seed Investment From ixigo For Launching Pan-India Inter-City EV Bus Services
Bengaluru/Hyderabad, 16th February 2023: FreshBus, a Bengaluru-based EV bus startup has secured ₹26 Crores in seed funding from ixigo (Le Travenues Technology Limited) for the launch of premium inter-city electric bus services across India. With an aim to revolutionize the bus travel experience with state-of-the-art electric buses, FreshBus will offer a futuristic alternative for convenient, affordable, and environment-friendly inter-city bus travel in India. The smart bus platform will run on a full-stack business model to deliver a wide range of innovative services including noise-free air-conditioned cabin, comfortable seating, uniformed and friendly crew, IOT-enabled real-time air-quality and temperature monitoring, security CCTVs, personal charging docks, Wi-Fi, real-time tracking, alcohol checks and more.
FreshBus will commence its services simultaneously from Hyderabad and Bengaluru with the launch of 24 electric buses and is expected to announce its first operational routes in March 2023. The EV bus startup plans to scale up its operations to over 1000 buses pan-India in the next 2-3 years. Unlike existing inter-city bus aggregators, FreshBus will be a technology enabled smart bus operator that will build and own the customer experience for travelers end-to-end across finding, tracking and booking their electric intercity buses via the FreshBus mobile app and website. The total market size for inter-city bus travel is close to $20 billion and is expected to grow more in the next few years.
FreshBus has been founded by serial entrepreneur Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, who earlier built and scaled India’s 2nd largest bus aggregator Abhibus, acquired by ixigo in August 2021 in a cash and stock business transfer agreement. Sudhakar has over 15 years of experience in the bus domain and in managing technology-led businesses.
Speaking on the new round of funding, Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, Founder & CEO, FreshBus said,“FreshBus was born out of a desire to address the pain areas of inter-city bus travelers in India, such as lack of punctuality, unscheduled stops, poor customer service, unprofessional staff, low bar for cleanliness, inconvenient boarding points, unhygienic pit-stops for women, etc. FreshBus aims to address these issues by emphasizing on quality and customer experience to make bus travel a hassle-free experience for all. We will offer a more environment friendly and affordable alternative to existing inter-city public transport which is currently dominated by fossil-fuel buses. A single FreshBus will save over 90,000 liters of diesel and reduce close to 200 tonnes of CO2 emissions in a span of one year. That is equivalent to the effect of almost 10,000 trees on the environment!”
Founded by Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, FreshBus is a modern inter-city EV bus service focused on providing affordable, clean, safe & environment-friendly long-distance transportation across India. Freshbus is backed by ixigo, India’s leading AI-based travel app.
About ixigo
Launched in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai & Rajnish Kumar, ixigo is a technology company focused on empowering Indian travelers to plan, book and manage their trips across rail, air, buses and hotels. ixigo assists travelers in making smarter travel decisions by leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science-led innovations on ixigo’s OTA platforms, including websites and mobile applications. The OTA platforms of ixigo allow travelers to book train tickets, flight tickets, bus tickets, hotels and cabs, while providing travel utility tools and services developed using in-house proprietary algorithms and crowd-sourced information, including train PNR status and confirmation predictions, train seat availability alerts, train running status updates and delay predictions, flight status updates, bus running status, pricing and availability alerts, deal discovery, destination content, personalized recommendations, instant fare alerts and automated customer support services.
FreshBus will commence its services simultaneously from Hyderabad and Bengaluru with the launch of 24 electric buses and is expected to announce its first operational routes in March 2023. The EV bus startup plans to scale up its operations to over 1000 buses pan-India in the next 2-3 years. Unlike existing inter-city bus aggregators, FreshBus will be a technology enabled smart bus operator that will build and own the customer experience for travelers end-to-end across finding, tracking and booking their electric intercity buses via the FreshBus mobile app and website. The total market size for inter-city bus travel is close to $20 billion and is expected to grow more in the next few years.
FreshBus has been founded by serial entrepreneur Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, who earlier built and scaled India’s 2nd largest bus aggregator Abhibus, acquired by ixigo in August 2021 in a cash and stock business transfer agreement. Sudhakar has over 15 years of experience in the bus domain and in managing technology-led businesses.
Speaking on the new round of funding, Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, Founder & CEO, FreshBus said,“FreshBus was born out of a desire to address the pain areas of inter-city bus travelers in India, such as lack of punctuality, unscheduled stops, poor customer service, unprofessional staff, low bar for cleanliness, inconvenient boarding points, unhygienic pit-stops for women, etc. FreshBus aims to address these issues by emphasizing on quality and customer experience to make bus travel a hassle-free experience for all. We will offer a more environment friendly and affordable alternative to existing inter-city public transport which is currently dominated by fossil-fuel buses. A single FreshBus will save over 90,000 liters of diesel and reduce close to 200 tonnes of CO2 emissions in a span of one year. That is equivalent to the effect of almost 10,000 trees on the environment!”
Founded by Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, FreshBus is a modern inter-city EV bus service focused on providing affordable, clean, safe & environment-friendly long-distance transportation across India. Freshbus is backed by ixigo, India’s leading AI-based travel app.
About ixigo
Launched in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai & Rajnish Kumar, ixigo is a technology company focused on empowering Indian travelers to plan, book and manage their trips across rail, air, buses and hotels. ixigo assists travelers in making smarter travel decisions by leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science-led innovations on ixigo’s OTA platforms, including websites and mobile applications. The OTA platforms of ixigo allow travelers to book train tickets, flight tickets, bus tickets, hotels and cabs, while providing travel utility tools and services developed using in-house proprietary algorithms and crowd-sourced information, including train PNR status and confirmation predictions, train seat availability alerts, train running status updates and delay predictions, flight status updates, bus running status, pricing and availability alerts, deal discovery, destination content, personalized recommendations, instant fare alerts and automated customer support services.