In the news, Coverfox raises $15M, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth drops, Uber’s CEO might step down & more stories in Today’s brief,

1. Fin-tech startup Lendingkart raises $7.8 mn in debt from Yes Bank

Ahmedabad- and Bangalore-based Lendingkart, an online lending platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised Rs 50 crore ($7.8 million) in debt from Yes Bank, it said in a statement.

The startup will use the funds to strengthen its loan book and expand operations to Tier 3 cities, where traditional credit avenues for SMEs are in short supply.

2. Uber board adopts all recommendations from Eric Holder investigation

The Uber Technologies Inc board of directors voted unanimously to adopt all recommendations from a report stemming from allegations of sexual harassment at the company and other employee concerns, a board representative said on Sunday.

Holder and his law firm were retained by Uber in February to investigate company practices after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing what she described as sexual harassment and the lack of a suitable response by senior managers.

3. Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick may be asked to step aside for 3 months

In the wake of reports that Uber executives turned a blind eye to sexual harassment and other corporate misbehavior, the company’s board on Sunday moved to shake up the leadership of the ride-hailing service, ahead of the release this week of an investigation into its troubled culture.

Uber directors were weighing a three-month leave of absence for Travis Kalanick, the chief executive who built the startup into a nearly $70 billion entity, according to three people with knowledge of the board’s agenda.

5. Insurance brokerage firm Coverfox raises $15 mn from Transamerica & others

Glitterbug Technologies, which owns and operates online insurance brokerage Coverfox, has raised about Rs 96 crore ($15 million) in its series-C round, led by US insurer Transamerica, with its existing investors also participating.

The latest round of equity financing values Coverfox between $70 million and $100 million, according to one of the sources cited earlier. Its current list of investors include SAIF Partners, Accel India and Catamaran Ventures ­ the family office of Infosys co-founder, NR Narayana Murthy.

6. Flipkart Shuts Down Global Sourcing Platform For Ecommerce Sellers

Homegrown ecommerce company Flipkart has reportedly shut down its global sourcing platform for sellers, Flipkart Global.

The move is reportedly aimed to increase the homegrown ecommerce giant’s reliance on the newly acquired eBay business for global sourcing. In April 2017, Flipkart had raised $1.4 Bn funding from Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft.

7. Elon Musk explains why he started Tesla

Billionaire Elon Musk on Friday took to Twitter to reveal why American electric carmaker Tesla was formed. Musk said Tesla was started after General Motors recalled all electric cars from customers in 2003 against their will. Tesla was not formed to make money, as its founders thought there was a “90% probability of losing it all,” he added.

8. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth drops by $2.6 bn in one day

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos lost $2.6 billion and slipped down one rank on the world’s richest list to become the third-richest person with a $83.9 billion fortune on Friday. The fall in his net worth came after Amazon shares fell over 3%. The dip made Zara Founder Amancio Ortega reclaim the second-richest position with a $84.6 billion fortune.

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A few years ago, I was taking an early morning flight home from Atlanta. Since it was 5 in the morning, I didn’t feel like standing outside to wait for a taxi, so I decided to use Uber. As with most of my Uber experiences, the car arrived promptly, the driver was courteous and personable and the ride lasted no longer than expected.

That’s as much as I need as a passenger.

At the end of the ride, the driver thanked me and asked if I’d be willing to provide him with 5 stars for the ride?

Hold up, I thought.

If you’ve never taken an Uber before, after your ride has concluded, you’re prompted within the Uber app to provide the company with a driver/ride/experience rating on a 5-star scale (1 star being bad, 5 stars being great).

Not only are you prompted to rate the driver, but the driver is also prompted to rate you (the passenger).

According to Uber’s description of the star rating system, it’s intended for the protection of both the drivers and the passengers.

To ensure the quality of both the driver-partners and riders in the community, our rating system is a two-way street. Driver-partners must rate every completed trip, while riders have the opportunity to submit a rating along with comments.

Ratings, which are given on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, should be honest and reflective of the overall trip experience.

So, why my hesitation when being asked by my driver to provide him with 5 stars?

Well, up to that point, I didn’t realise it was a game.

Within that single question, I realised that their entire star rating system was nothing more than a mutual admiration society. An “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” transaction. The equivalent of a circa 1990’s link exchange.

Up until he asked me that question, I actually took those ratings seriously.

Frankly, at this point I don’t even remember the rating I ultimately gave him, but I’m sure it was 5 stars. And, in all honesty, after I left his car that morning I hadn’t really given it any further thought.

That was…until just recently.

Unless you’ve been sitting under a rock for the past few months, you’ve probably caught at least one or two of the controversies to hit Uber this year. To say it kindly, it hasn’t been a good 2017 for Uber so far.

From claims of sexual harassment, to a lawsuit for theft of intellectual property from Google (their investor) to a video of its figurehead, Travis Kalanick, screaming at one of the drivers, the company has been under constant fire.

Since the bad news began, it has seemed like a never-ending barrage of negative revelations that continue to pile up upon each other.

As a result, their detractors have started a hashtag campaign #DeleteUber, which according to reports, has resulted in between 200,000 to 500,000 app deletions. Or, in other words, lost customers.

I’ll be honest and say that, among the lost customers, I’m not one of them.

I still have my Uber app and I’m likely to use their service again in the near future. That doesn’t mean that I support the things they did, nor does it mean that I’m a promoter (i.e. advocate) for their company.

In fact, given the stories that have come out, I wouldn’t dare endorse them. And, I’m guessing that they don’t have many promoters left willing to do so either.

BUT … they wouldn’t know that.

Why?

Because, transactionally (A.K.A. their 5 star rating system), customers don’t have a problem with their product or service.

And even if they did have a problem, we already know that the drivers and riders are gaming the feedback system to support each other, so the data is inaccurate at best.

If this were a CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Survey), Uber would be winning in the minds of customers. If this were an NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey, they’d be DOA.

Uber has a problem. And, it’s not just the bad headlines.

Uber Has A Relationship Problem

Overall, customer relationships are so much greater than the transaction that occurs between the customer and the company.

A customer can have a bad transaction and still have a great relationship with a company. Much like a married couple could have an argument but still be in love.

However, if the core relationship is poor, if there is no love between a couple, there is nothing that binds them together.

Uber may still have a lot of customers, but their future prospects are not looking bright, because relationally, people are not happy.

In the 5+ years that I’ve been using Uber for transportation, I haven’t once received an NPS survey from the company. Never have I been asked to rate the company on a scale, only its drivers. As far as Uber knows, based on the ride ratings I’ve provided, I’m a happy customer.

And, from a transactional perspective that’s fairly accurate, but it’s only a very small part of my story as a customer.

They know nothing about my intentions to ride with them in the future, or whether I might be willing to defend them in the comment section of a scathing story. Maybe I’m one step away from jumping on the #DeleteUber bandwagon or maybe I have some insights that could save their company.

But, Uber will never know this until they start caring less about the transaction and more about the relationship with their customers. If Uber wants to get ahead of the problems they’re currently facing, they’re going to need to get serious about communicating with their customers.

This means engaging with each customer individually and in a meaningful manner. Listening to their needs and providing solutions.

Unfortunately, their superficial 5-point rating game between driver and passenger isn’t going to cut it.

Like any couple facing challenges in their relationship, this may require therapy. In the case of Uber and its customers, that therapist is NPS.

Disclaimer: This is a curated post. The statements, opinions and data contained in these publications are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of knowstartup and the editor(s). This article was initially published here.

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In today brief we have Ola securing $50 million, Amazon doubling seller base, Uber CEO’s unclear future & more stories.

1. Ola secures $50m from NY hedge fund

India’s largest taxi aggregator Ola has continued its fundraising momentum, adding hedge fund Tekne Capital Management to its growing set of investors.

The New York-based investment firm has infused less than $50 million in the company as part of its ongoing round, which has also seen participation from Ratan Tata’s venture fund RNT Capital Advisors and US hedge fund Falcon Edge. The funding momentum comes after Ola decided to raise capital at a lower valuation of $3 billion, from $4.5-5 billion in 2015, from SoftBank in November last year.

2. Offline stores get a spot on Paytm Mall

Online retailer Paytm Mall, backed by China’s Alibaba, has launched an online-to-offline (O2O) commerce platform catering to organised retail players, small merchants and brands.

The QR-code-based platform allows these offline stores to create an online presence and catalogue that will enable consumers to buy from the stores directly. The Paytm Mall QR code, which will be installed in these stores and is different from the payment-based QR code channel, will also help customers order products which are out of stock online.

3. Uber Board To Diminish CEO Travis Kalanick’s Role Post His Return

After a year rocked with scandals and downward news spirals, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has stated that he will take an indefinite leave of absence to grieve for his mother – who died last month – as well as to become a better leader.

After months of issues and scandals, while Travis Kalanick signs off the letter with “see you soon”, however, he might have a diminished role when he comes back. Yesterday, the Uber board has accepted all recommendations given by the Former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law partner Tammy Albarrán, who undertook an investigation of the company’s workplace practices and offer remedies. One of the major recommendations includes “reallocating the responsibilities” of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and increasing the profile of Uber’s head of diversity Bernard Coleman.

4. Ecommerce Enabler Shopmatic Secures $5.7 Mn Funding

Ecommerce enabler Shopmatic has raised about $5.7 Mn in Series AA funding round led by tech focussed VC firm ACP Pte Ltd. The round also saw participation from Singapore-based fund Spring Seeds Capital Pte Ltd.

As a part of the funding round, Sameer Narula, Managing Partner, ACP, is joining Shopmatic’s board. Shopmatic was launched in December 2014 by three Paypal veterans – Yen Ti Lim, Anurag Avula and Kris Chen. In 2015, it raised $1.5 Mn from undisclosed investors.

5. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative just invested $5 million in a startup that helps teachers buy homes

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s $45 billion project, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, has invested $5 million in the Y Combinator startup Landed. The company helps educators buy property by fronting up to half of a home’s down payment.

What Landed offers is not exactly a loan—there are no monthly fees or interest. Instead, Landed makes money when the house is sold or refinanced and owners share up to 25% of the appreciation or depreciation.

6. Apple focusing on autonomous car system, says CEO Tim Cook

After years toiling away in secret on its car project, Apple Inc. chief executive officer Tim Cook has for the first time laid out exactly what the company is up to in the automotive market: It’s concentrating on self-driving technology.

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said in a 5 June interview on Bloomberg Television that amounted to his most detailed comments yet on Apple’s automotive plans. “It’s a core technology that we view as very important.” He likened the effort to “the mother of all AI (artificial intelligence) projects,” saying it’s “probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”

7. Amazon India doubles seller base in less than a year

E-commerce marketplace Amazon India has now on-boarded two lakh sellers on its platform, a company statement said.

The company claims to have achieved this number early this month, when it registered jewellery seller BnJ on the platform. Amazon also said it achieved this in less than a year, after reaching the 1-lakh mark in July 2016.

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In the startup news brief today we report that Uber has been sued, MoneyTap has raises $12.3M, Tesla’s is working on the import duty exception for India launch and more stories.

1. Uber sued by India rape victim over alleged privacy violation

Uber Technologies has been dragged to the court by a woman who was raped by an Uber cab driver in Delhi in 2014 for illegally accessing her medical records by Uber’s executive.

Seeking a jury trial against Uber, the woman on Thursday filed a suit in a Court in California seeking damages and injunction against Uber. It has been stated in the suit that the victim is “devastated” by the acts of Uber and its executives who “who have intruded into her very personal medical records from her sexual assault and callously disregarded her privacy by sharing their contents across the company”.

Tesla seeks import duty exemption from government for India launch

As the presupposed ‘summer’ launch of Tesla in India washes away with the monsoon making a landfall in the country, its celebrated CEO provided an update last evening. In his characteristic style, Elon Musk – in response to a tweet – claimed that his company is in negotiations with the government to temporarily exempt the multi-billion dollar company from import duties.

Responding to Jasveer Singh’s tweet asking for an update on the revised launch date of Tesla in India, Musk said that the company is “in discussions with the government of India requesting temporary relief on import penalties/restrictions”.

Uber appoints key executive for Hyderabad centre

Uber has appointed Jaiteerth Patwari as senior engineering leader at its engineering centre in Hyderabad, the taxi-hailing company said on Thursday.

Patwari, who was heading the LeMall R&D division at LeEco in his previous stint, will focus on building platforms and products for the Indian market that can also be scaled up quickly. The development comes at a time when the San Francisco-based Uber is globally battling a management crisis.

Fintech Startup MoneyTap Raises $12.3 Mn From Sequoia India, Others

Consumer lending startup MoneyTap has raised about $12.3 Mn funding in a round led by Sequoia India. Existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Prime Venture Partners also participated in the round.

Bengaluru-based MoneyTap was launched in September 2016 by Bala Parthasarathy, Anuj Kacker, and Kunal Varma. MoneyTap is an app-based credit line. It provides flexible loan for personal use. The startup is targeted at salaried individuals and self-employed professionals earning more than INR 20,000 per month.

Amazon said to be interested in buying Slack

Corporate chatroom start-up Slack Technologies Inc. has received recent inquiries about a potential takeover from technology companies including Amazon.com Inc., people with knowledge of the situation said.

A deal could give San Francisco-based Slack a valuation of at least $9 billion, the people said. An agreement isn’t assured and discussions may not go further, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Element AI raises $102 million to take on Amazon, Alphabet

Element AI, a Canadian artificial intelligence startup backed by one of the field’s leading scientists, raised $102 million in new funding as it seeks to assert itself in an industry quickly being taken over by internet giants such as Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

The Montreal-based company, received investments in the funding round from venture capital firm Data Collective, Microsoft Ventures, Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp., among others. Element operates somewhat like a consulting firm, working on a small number of large projects for major corporations that want to use AI techniques to help solve their problems, such as designing a new underwriting model for an insurance company.

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Earlier this week Uber CEO Travis had announced that he would soon be taking  an indefinite leave of absence to become a better leader. However, apparently this didn’t convince the investors who have pumped in huge investments in the company that has been in headlines of late for not so good news.

Kalanick’s exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber’s investors as per two undisclosed sources with knowledge of the situation. The CEO of the ride-hailing service had announced last week his intention,

“to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve.”

But that announcement didn’t deter the resolve of the investors who were not appeased by this announcement and wanted a bigger change in the structure of the company. The investors which include venture capital firm Benchmark, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Fidelity Investments, together own more than a quarter of Uber’s stock

In total, they have about 40% of Uber’s voting power. The investors demanded Kalanick’s resignation in a letter delivered to him while he was in Chicago. Since inception the investors have put in millions of dollars into the company and its current valuation hovers around USD 70 billion.

Through the letter Travis was informed that he must step down since the company needs a change in leadership. They also demanded that Travis must support a Board-led search committee for a new Chief Executive and that Uber immediately hire an experienced Chief Financial Officer.

In response to this Travis had released a statement stating,

“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors’ request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight.”

This change is definitely going to have lasting impact on Uber’s future since until now the company was typically moulded in the image of Travis.

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Travis Kalanick’s final hours as Uber’s chief executive played out in a private room in a downtown Chicago hotel Tuesday.

Just a few months ago, Kalanick’s position at Uber seemed impregnable. He had helped found the company in 2009 and had pushed it into markets around the world.

Kalanick, who was on a trip to interview executive candidates for Uber, was paid a surprise visit. Two venture capitalists — Matt Cohler and Peter Fenton of the Silicon Valley firm Benchmark, which is one of Uber’s biggest shareholders — presented Kalanick with a list of demands, including his resignation before the end of the day. The letter was from five of Uber’s major investors, including Benchmark and the mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments.

Kalanick balked, according to people briefed on the meeting who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential. Kalanick, who had built Uber into a transportation behemoth in just eight years, quickly called Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member, for advice. Huffington told Kalanick that the suggestions in the letter were worth considering. That afternoon, Kalanick locked himself in a room with Cohler and Fenton to hash out the best course for Uber.

By the end of the day, after hours of haggling and arguing, that course was clear: Kalanick agreed to step down as Uber’s chief executive.

Wrong turns led to a forced exit

It was the culmination of several months in which nearly all of Kalanick’s support base turned against him. One by one, executives, board members, investors and even close friends slowly fell away as Uber became embroiled in a seemingly ceaseless series of legal and ethical scandals, according to interviews with more than a dozen Uber insiders, former employees, investors and others, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Some of these constituencies ultimately decided that Kalanick had become a liability to Uber and moved to protect their own interests at his expense. In the end, that loss of support — coupled with his having to deal with the recent death of his mother — narrowed Kalanick’s options for staying on as Uber’s leader.

The unclear future

His exit as chief executive raises many questions about Uber’s future, including who will lead the company next. It also faces other urgent tasks, such as replenishing its top ranks, retaining its 14,000 full-time employees, reforming its workplace and repairing its sometimes fractious relationship with its drivers, who are contractors. In addition, Uber must maintain its business, which is growing.

Will Uber pull brakes on India

Even though the company’s operations in India are unaffected since its head Amit Jain continues to be at the helm, there is a lot of uncertainty among the employees since the whole management at the top has been dismantled.

Kalanick’s exit has come as a big blow to the morale of the team since he is hero-worshipped by most of the employees even though his ways may not always have been `ethical’ especially when it came to dealing with law enforcement agencies.

“There has been a meltdown internally after we heard Travis was resigning from the post of CEO. Literally all of us feel like we are just hanging in there, hoping that the new management will continue to keep India as a top priority for Uber, just like the previous top-level management did,“ said another senior Uber official.

Employees are not sure if the new management will have a similar focus for India. “He definitely has a major fan following. Many of us worshipped his go-getter attitude, hell bent on innovation and changing the way transportation worked, despite going against the regulatory authorities to meet that end goal. Without him as the CEO, many of us highly doubt if Uber is going to grow as fast as it did,“ said another Uber executive.

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Uber has been under the storms eye for a long time now and the most important blow was the stepping down of the Uber founder Travis three months ago. Well, apparently things look brighter now since Dara Khosrowhahi is the final choice for filling in the void created by Travis’s exit.

After months of contentious search, Uber has finally chosen its new CEO to lead the company out of turmoil. As per two undisclosed sources, Dara Khosrowshahi, who leads the online travel company Expedia, is set to be its chief executive.

Dara Khosrowshahi emerged as the leading candidate from a final list of three candidates which included Jeffrey R. Immelt, the former chief of General Electric and Meg Whitman, the chief of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. While the board was leaning towards Meg Whitman, as per sources, Whitman could not agree on terms in which she would take over as chief executive.

Dara Khosrowshahi joins Uber at a time when it is crucial for the $70 Bn company to return to stability after Travis Kalanick stepped down from the CEO job under investor pressure on June 20. Kalanick’s resignation came after a year of scandals and currently he is also being sued by early investor Benchmark Capital accusing him of fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.

Dara Khosrowshahi, who has been President and CEO of Expedia since 2005, the world’s largest online travel agency by bookings, has experience in a digital industry which, like Uber, is concerned with logistics and movement of people. The publicly traded company is smaller than the privately-held Uber, with a market capitalisation of around $23 Bn in comparison with Uber’s private valuation of nearly $70 Bn. In 2015, he was the highest paid CEO in the country, mainly because of a nearly $91 Mn stock option grant. He is also on the board of the New York Times Company and sports merchandise company Fanatics Inc.

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With the ever growing traffic on the roads more and more people are looking for alternatives to driving their way across the city.  Well the fight for a piece of the cake has become fiercer due to this.

The future of the ride-hailing industry depends on the capricious largesse of two internet billionaires on opposite sides of the globe. Alphabet Inc., led by Larry Page, just backed Lyft Inc., while SoftBank Group Corp. chief Masayoshi Son is set to take a big stake in larger rival Uber Technologies Inc.

As per the information from ET, Alphabet unit CapitalG led a $1 billion investment in Lyft on Thursday that valued the No. 2 U.S. ride-hailing company at $11 billion. SoftBank is expected to put a fresh $1 billion into Uber, and spend billions more buying shares from existing investors.

It wasn’t always this way. In fact, it’s a stunning role reversal. Any amity that still existed evaporated in August 2016 when Uber announced that it was purchasing Otto, an autonomous trucking company run by former Alphabet self-driving car employees. That month, Drummond officially left Uber’s board — even though he’d stopped attending meetings many months prior. In February 2017, Alphabet sued Uber for stealing its trade secrets.

Masayoshi Son’s switch is arguably even more dramatic. Before wooing Uber in recent months, SoftBank had invested billions of dollars in the following ride-sharing startups: Didi in China, Ola in India and Grab in Southeast Asia.

By 2015, SoftBank had formed an anti-Uber alliance that earned nicknames like DKGLO (which stands for Didi Kuaidi, Grab, Lyft, and Ola). There were partnerships and cross investments. Didi invested $100 million in Lyft that year. Lyft and Didi were going to partner up. It seemed inevitable that SoftBank would join team Lyft, and Son even hinted he was interested earlier this year.

The tussle between the two biggies has just got bigger and one can rest assured that Larry and Masa are pulling the strings.

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Uber has been trying hard to regain its lost sheen in past couple of months. To manage this the ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc. has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the firms said in a statement on Monday, marking the U.S. company’s second retreat from an Asian market.

The deal will account for the industry’s first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, which possesses a huge potential for all the ride hailing companies, and puts pressure on Indonesia’s Go-Jek, which is backed by Alphabet Inc’s Google and China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Speaking of the development, Khosrowshahi said in a statement,

“It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology,”

He further added while sharing a note to his employees,

“It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, given this is the third deal of its kind … The answer is no,”

A shake-up in Asia’s fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry became likely earlier this year when Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber. SoftBank also invested in Grab. As part of the transaction, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Singapore-based Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.

Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost USD 4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home and in Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

Uber’s two previous retreats, from China and Russia, happened under former CEO Travis Kalanick. The deal with Grab is the first operations sale by Khosrowshahi, who started in September. Uber includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America among its core markets – regions where it has more than 50 percent market share and is profitable or sees a path to profitability.

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Following suit with Goa, Haryana, Mizoram, and West Bengal, Karnataka may be the next state to legally allow on-demand bike taxis services in the state. The Karnataka transport department, after receiving instructions from the state government, has started looking at representations from various stakeholders over reintroducing the service, according to reports.

Some of the significant on-demand bike taxi operators in India are UberMoto, OlaBike, Baxi, Bikxie, and Rapido.

B Basavaraju, principal secretary, transport department, stated,

“We are studying the pros and cons of on-demand bike taxis, which is different from the rent-a-bike concept. The department is aware that bike taxis are already available in some states. I have directed the officials to talk to different stakeholders.”

Bike taxis are not new to Bengalureans. Uber and a couple of other aggregators have introduced bike taxis in the city in the past as well. However, within a few days of the launch, the state government, on March 5, 2016, had declared bike taxis illegal. In fact, the city police had seized 80 Uber bike taxis by 12 March 2016.

Since India’s Motor Vehicle Act doesn’t have a provision for two-wheelers to be used as taxis, some state governments such as Goa, Mizoram, and West Bengal have made their own provisions to allow bike taxis to play their states.

Even as the Karnataka state government has green signalled the reintroduction of bike taxis, and the transport department is currently mulling the possibility, Uber has already submitted its application for bike taxi approval to extend its ‘efficient last-mile services’ to its customers.

While safety and security have been the major issues in the implementation of bike taxis, particularly in the Indian context, that’s not the only issue. India’s vehicle fleet is growing rapidly. In 1991, there were 20 million vehicles in India; in 2011, the number had skyrocketed to 140 million, and by 2030, it is expected to reach a staggering 400 million vehicles.

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