Alteria Capital offers venture debt to scooter-rental startup Vogo

Vogo Automotive Pvt. Ltd, which operates an eponymous scooter-sharing platform, has raised Rs 25 crore (around $3.6 million at the current exchange rate) in venture debt from existing investor Alteria Capital.

Alteria Capital had first backed Vogo last October with an investment of Rs 8 crore. 

“We have seen the rapid growth in this segment over the last 9-12 months and Vogo has consistently surpassed expectations on operating performance and driving demand,” Vinod Murali, managing partner at Alteria Capital, said in a statement.

Chennai-headquartered Vogo was set up in 2016 by Anand Ayyadurai, Padmanabhan Balakrishnan and Sanchit Mittal.

The startup operates an automated pickup-and-drop scooter rental platform and remotely tracks and monitors the vehicles in real-time. It is currently operational in Mysuru, Manipal, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

In January, the company raised Rs 63 crore ($8.9 million) in a fresh funding round from existing investors Kalaari Capital. Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Hero Group promoter Pawan Munjal’s family trust.

A little before that, ride-hailing unicorn Ola had committed to investing Rs 720 crore (around $100 million) in Vogo.

In April, Vogo strengthened its top leadership team by appointing Sharath Parameswaran as vice president of growth and Prasanth Prabhakar as vice president of operations.

Vogo competes directly with dockless bike-rental platform Bounce, which is backed by Sachin Bansal and B Capital.

Last month, Bengaluru-based Bounce received $1 million from telecommunications and semiconductor major Qualcomm.

Alteria Capital

The venture debt firm was founded in 2017 by Murali and Ajay Hattangdi, who were former top executives at venture debt provider InnoVen Capital India Pvt. Ltd.

Alteria’s portfolio includes startups such as Faasos, Portea, Fingerlix (Maverix Platforms Pvt Ltd), Toppr Technologies Ltd, Raw Pressery, Vogo Bikes, Dunzo, Vinculum, Mfine, Zest Money, Stanza Living, Country Delight, Loadshare and Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd.