American duo David Back & Greg Moran, met while studying at the University of Pennsylvania, where both graduated in 2007. After graduating, Back studied at Harvard Law School and Moran worked on energy financing projects. The pair also attended business school; Moran at the University of Southern California and Back at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University. Back and Moran both dropped out of business school to move to India and pursue a venture in car rentals. In May 2015, Back resigned from the self-drive car rental company, and decided to move back to the US citing personal reasons. Zoom officially launched operations in Bangalore in February 2013. Zoom started with $215,000 in capital and a fleet of seven cars.
Investors and Valuation
Zoom initially raised capital from individual investors including Former US Treasury SecretaryLawrence Summers, Chair of the UK Institute of Directors Lady Barbara Judge, Vice-Dean of International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School William P. Alford, Wharton Statistics Chair Edward George, and the former Director of the Cambridge Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies Shai Vyakarnam. Back met Summers at Harvard University, where Back was a teaching assistant to Summers. Zoomcar's institutional investors include: Mahindra&Mahindra, Ford Motor Company, Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, FundersClub, Basset Investment Group, Athene Capital, Empire Angels, Venture Souk, OurCrowd, Globevestor., and Cyber Carrier CL. Zoomcar has also raised money from former Infosys CFO T.V. Mohandas Pai and his business partner Abhay Jain. At Ford's investor day presentation in September 2016, CEO Mark Fields described difficulties with Ford's prior strategy in India, but commented "Our new mobility business could be a factor that plays in there. That's why you saw us about a month ago take an equity position in Zoomcar, which is the largest car sharing service in India." Zoomcar has raised a total funding of Rs. 673 Cr. and it has been valued at Rs. 1778 Cr. in its latest round of funding.
Competition
Zoomcar faces competition from Revv, Drivezy, MylesCars, Ola Drive by and other similar car rental companies.
Partnerships
Zoom partnered with the auto manufacturers like Ford & Mahindra which allowed them to become the first car rental company in India to offer an electric vehicle and the Ford EcoSport "urban SUV by Ford" in 2013. Zoom also works with locally established real estate developers, universities, hotels, and corporate IT parks to secure parking for its vehicles and offer pick-up points to its members. In November 2013, Zoom, Uber, and the Ashoka Foundation launched a month-long campaign in Bangalore called RideSmartBLR to encourage car-rental and discourage drunk driving for its health, economical and environmental benefits. Zoom was a member of Microsoft's Accelerator Plus program in Bangalore in Spring 2014. This program is designed to provide more tailored assistance to later-stage start-ups as they scale their business and raise capital.
Opposition
In July 2015, Zoomcar issued caution information to its customers following opposition from the Ladakh taxi union. Following an incident in which a convoy of 15 cars rented from the company was reportedly attacked by members of the union with stones and iron rods, Zoomcar issued a cautionary mail to customers traveling to Khardung La and Nubra valley. The following week Zoom issued an update stating that the situation had aggravated and the company urged extreme caution to customers traveling to the region. The taxi unions of Gulmarg and Ladakh continue to resist entry of non-local commercial cars in the region.
