American start-up culture is more developed than the Indian start-up culture. Recently India is making big news on this ground. But, the start-up ecosystem has not been this strong in our nation since the beginning. It took years for entrepreneurs and visionaries to establish a rigid concept of start-ups in India and eradicate the orthodoxy.
Since India is just at a budding stage for young entrepreneurs to shine, the potential is extremely high. So many business ideas and resources are left unturned. But, a perfect business mind always finds a path to achieve the goal.
The unexplored market of India attracted the American duo to our nation and establish a start-up. Greg Moran and David Back were fascinated by the potential business market in the field of transportation in India. They decided to open a business for car rentals and kudos they made it. They founded Zoomcar in February 2013 through the market research that was going for a long time.
About the Founders of Zoomcar
Greg Moran went to the University of Pennsylvania and acquired his bachelor’s degree in international relations. During his time at this university, he worked as a summer associate in Cerberus Capital Management. After graduating, he joined Fieldstone Capital Private Group as an analyst and worked there for almost two years.
Before pursuing his master’s he worked at International Power America for a year. In 2011, he joined USC Marshall School of Business for acquiring his MBA. Greg worked as FloDesign Wind Turbine as a summer associate in 2012. While pursuing his MBA, he developed a very keen interest in the market of India. Hence, one fine day he decides to fly to India with David and plan a business.
David has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania. He also went to Harvard Law School and he completed his MBA from Cambridge University. In 2006, he worked as a summer research intern at the American Enterprise Institute. He also has teaching experience at the University of Pennsylvania.
David also has working experience at McKinsey & Company and Goldman Sachs. He resigned from Zoomcar in 2015 and joined Idein Ventures as an entrepreneur in residence. He was a speaker at The London Speaker Bureau for four years and in 2019 he became the managing partner of Icarus Ventures.
The Beginning
Intrigued by the potential of the Indian market, Greg, one day decided to take a vacation and explore business opportunities. David accompanied him. It seems Greg saw a huge scope in the car rental sector and started planning seriously about it. The duo was in a dilemma between the transportation business and renewable energy space but decided to pick the former one.
Honestly, the obstacles were immeasurable. They faced a lot of problems initially which included getting a license in the first place. Greg received the seed funding, everything was ready but at the eleventh hour, they weren’t given the permission to have a license. It was a do or die situation for them, but they managed to sign in a deal with someone already having a license. The entire procedure wasn’t a piece of cake but the business kicked off really well.
Investors and Partnerships
The initial investors of Zoomcar include Lawrence Summers, Lady Barbara Judge, William P. Alford, and many more. Some famous companies Zoomcar raised funding from are Mahindra&Mahindra, Ford Motor Company, Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, Funders Club, Athene Capital, and etc. To date, Zoomcar has raised total funding of 673 crores.
Throughout this journey of seven years, Zoomcar has established a firm relationship with Mahindra and Ford. Zoomcar in association with Uber has also launched some campaign increasing driving awareness among the public.
Success
Both David and Greg had to overcome a lot of struggles to make Zoomcar a huge success. Firstly, it was a big challenge to make people believe that they were serious about the start-up. Because most of them thought it was just a plan which will never come into play. And, licensing was another nightmare for the company.
But, Zoomcar currently witnesses over 5,000 bookings per day. Their next target is to make 8,000 cars on the road turn to 25,000 cars on the road.
Both the co-founders think that users will increase at a rate more than twice in the following years. Because a good part of India’s population consists of adults aging between 25-30 who believe more in experimenting than having an asset. So, anytime they will pick a car rental service rather than buying one.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more