Yulu Rides on Quick Commerce to Drive Growth and Profitability Shared electric mobility provider Yulu has been riding on the rise of the hyper-local quick commerce segment in India to drive growth and profitability. Nearly 70 per cent of its business currently comes from the quick commerce segment, while food delivery and other segments account for the rest.

Shared electric mobility provider Yulu has been riding on the rise of the hyper-local quick commerce segment in India to drive growth and profitability. Nearly 70 per cent of its business currently comes from the quick commerce segment, while food delivery and other segments account for the rest.

Amit Gupta, Yulu's Co-founder and CEO said in an interview with Entrepreneur India that the exponential rise of quick commerce has led to healthy revenue growth. Yulu's DeX, an EV two-wheeler purpose-built for delivery and partnerships has been driving the traction in quick commerce with Zomato using 35,000 shared EVs and Zepto using up to 20,000.

"Thanks to our great product-market fit, and the exponential growth rather in the quick commerce side, we are now looking at anywhere between 2.5 to three times growth in revenue over next 12 months," said Gupta.

The company said it recently turned EBITDA positive and has become India's largest EBITDA profitable shared electric mobility company; crossing Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of USD 30 million.

"The EBITDA milestone is all about having a vision and the team ready to take the business to that kind of scale. And our company was no different. We always wanted to run the company profitably. So, that's the power of technology, the power of a product, where the same defined set of individuals and your cost base can deliver far better output in terms of your revenues," Gupta said.

Yulu's rise can be largely attributed to a battery-swapping model, that has helped its inventory stay on the road without any stoppages, and Gupta believes that the EV provider has the best solution in the market for large-scale businesses like Zomato and Zepto.

"Our 100 per cent on time or 100 per cent uptime promise makes a lot of sense due to the battery swapping model. So with our use case, and with what we are doing at this stage, we probably have the best solution in the market," said Gupta.

In 2023, the company launched Yuma Energy, a joint venture with Magna International Inc, and deployed more than 200 battery swapping stations across India, with full integration with Yulu's core mobility platform. A fleet management powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) helps Yulu manage the scale.

Gupta said Yulu has not lost focus on its commuter service due to its foray into quick commerce but the shift rather has been about "flowing with the market."

"We do have 6,000 bikes, for example, in a city like Bengaluru and will continue to add a couple thousand more in the service mix. So there's still growth in the office commuter or daily commuter segment. But because the quick commerce segment is growing so fast, we are going with the market flow. So we will match our supply growth," added Gupta.

The CEO confirmed that the demand has reshaped the design ideology within its products with innovation actively underway. "We are also rolling out a new product offering sometime next month, with a use case for e-commerce with a larger carrying capacity. So there are use cases, which will get unlocked eventually and soon we are going to launch a new product called Yulu Express."

Yulu's product range aims to be a neighborhood-focused vehicle with offerings such as the DeX. Gupta said that the reason behind this is to produce utilitarian vehicles, rather than have products that are multi-purpose.

"If someone wants to buy a Yulu for their personal use case of carrying a passenger, I would say Yulu is not a great product for that. However, we have found that there are customer segments, with use cases based on the stage of life they are in. Our product called Yulu Win, an experiment, saw a strong pull from youngsters, particularly teenagers, whose parents did not want them to be on super high-speed scooters. They needed a small, easy mobility solution to use for their commute. It is also loved by a lot of female users because they also don't want a 125-kilogram heavy vehicle, which requires a lot of interventions."

Gupta said that even with senior citizens, the company sees the need for a hassle-free product experience and for a good 'around the neighborhood' vehicle.

Yulu now operates across different models in twelve different cities in India and it has attracted a total of USD 123 million in equity capital from investors such as Bajaj Auto, Magna International, Blume Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Wavemaker, Incubate Fund, Rocketship.vc, and other institutional and angel investors so far.

In terms of future fundraising, Gupta believes that Yulu is in a position to call itself an attractive proposition to investors. As IPOs have started to become an attractive exit strategy for early investors, Yulu has also created a buzz among venture capital or startup investors, he added.

"We believe that in the next three to four years, we will have the revenue size, scale, and all those five elements to take the company public. From an equity funding perspective, sometime next year we'll raise our new round of funding and another in three to four years," Gupta said.

On IPO listing, Gupta said, "We do have aspirations to be public listing ready. And based on the timing of the market, we'll also list the company."