bp Ventures invests $9 million in India’s leading intercity bus platform, Zingbus

bp Ventures invests $9 million in India’s leading intercity bus platform, Zingbus

• Zingbus’ platform is designed to make intercity travel more affordable, accessible and reliable.
• bp’s investment will be used to scale operations and grow the team.
• Zingbus has signed a commercial agreement with Jio-bp pulse to work together to help electrify India’s intercity bus routes.

Zingbus founders (left to right: Ravi Kumar Verma, Prashant Kumar, Mratunjay Beniwal). *Buses pictured are not electric and are part of Zingbus' existing bus service and network.

bp Ventures has invested $9 million USD into Zingbus, leading its Series A funding round. The start-up, headquartered in Delhi, has built a tech solutions platform for electric bus operators and their customers travelling between cities. Zingbus’ market leading platform provides front and back end digital infrastructure for bus operators, including pricing, fleet management and route optimization services, together with a dedicated ticketing marketplace.

India has the second largest road network in the world, reaching around 6.4 million kilometers[1] and around 50 million people a day travel between its cities[2]. Zingbus was founded to address some of the existing challenges of intercity mobility, including potentially unsafe boarding points and unreliability by enabling transport that is accessible and reliable.

Since its inception in 2019, Zingbus has worked with small and medium sized bus operators to serve more than two million users across 300 Indian cities.

The company’s tech stack aims to provide an ecosystem that empowers traditional bus operators in India to transition from ICE (internal combustion engine) powered buses to electric vehicles (EVs).

“Electric buses in India are cheaper to run than diesel ones, and with the Indian Government targeting a 100% electric bus fleet by 2030, we saw an opportunity to not only make the transition from ICE to electric more streamlined and cost efficient, but to also make life easier and safer for people travelling between cities.

“We’ve created a best-in-class tech platform that addresses the major challenges of running an electric bus, empowering bus operators with the tech they need to transition. This approach makes the model highly scalable and could allow us to support over 3000 electric buses on Indian highways in the next 5-6 years. That’s what we see as being our superpower.”

Zingbus CEO and co-founder, Prashant Kumar

Zingbus has signed a commercial agreement with Jio-bp pulse - the electric mobility joint venture between Reliance and bp - to utilize its EV charging network and convenience sites across the country for bus operators on the Zingbus platform. Jio-bp pulse operates India’s largest EV fleet charging hubs and public fast charge points in various cities and major highways. It has recently installed its 5,000th charge point.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228896/india-total-road-length/

[2] Developed India needs an efficient bus system - Hindustan Times

Notes to Editors

Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML) is an Indian fuels and mobility joint venture between Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and bp, operating under the brand ‘Jio-bp’.

About Zingbus

Started by Prashant Kumar, Mratunjay Beniwal and Ravi Verma in 2019, Zingbus is using technology to standardize the fragmented space of India's intercity bus travel. They aggregate small bus companies under their brand umbrella helping them make more profits and deliver a reliable experience to travelers. Headquartered in Delhi, they are backed by Y Combinator, InfoEdge Ventures and Advantedge founders. For more information, visit zingbus.com.

About bp Ventures

bp Ventures was set up more than 10 years ago as bp’s corporate venture capital arm. Since then, bp has invested over $1bn in technology companies and is actively managing around 40 investments today. bp Ventures makes equity investments in private, high growth businesses accelerating innovation across bp’s transition growth engines: renewables, EV charging, convenience, bioenergy and hydrogen. For more information, visit bp.com/ventures.

Further information

bp press office, London: +44 (0)78347 10054, +44 (0)7787 685821, bppress@bp.com

Kekst CNC, London: +44 (0)20 3755 1630, bpventures@kekstcnc.com

Zingbus, Delhi: +91-7022014309, founders@zingbus.com

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