Nandan Nilekani-backed startup IntrCity SmartBus to raise $20-30 million by this year-end

Nandan Nilekani-backed intercity mobility startup IntrCity SmartBus is looking to raise USD 20-30 million funds by the end of this year to drive its future growth plans, its co-founder Kapil Raizada has said.

He said the company plans to enhance capacity on the existing routes besides expanding its services on some new routes in the next 12-18 months.
IntrCity currently offers two lakh seats per month with over 200-250 daily schedules. It operates more than 40 routes spanning across 16 states with a fleet of some 200 buses.

The company is in conversation with the potential investors to raise funds in the range of USD 20-30 million, Raizada told PTI.

"However, some of these amounts could change, depending on the nature of investors coming in, depending on how our different business plans go that we look to create for the next 2-3 years," he said.

So far the company has raised USD 30-million capital with the latest round in February 2020, when Nandan Nikelani and Samsung Venture Investment came on board as strategic investors, with over Rs 100 crore capital infusion, with the participation of other investors as well.

Raizada said the company is seeing interest in its business from both VC and PE players, and added, "at our scale, this is more of VC kind of investors that come in from the growth phase but it also attracts private equity players being a profitable business."

According to the company, it delivered 1.8 times growth in the first half of 2022, with revenues nearing USD 45-million at an annualised run-rate and business achieving operational profitability.

IntrCity is expected to complete the process by this year's end, he said.

Usually the process takes about 3-4 months, "we are expecting the process to be completed by the end of this calendar year," he said.

The company will expand capacity by 50 per cent with additional around 100 buses in the fleet to cater to the demand, which has come back to the pre-COVID level starting from March this year.

"We plan inventory on demand forecast. We do expect a 50 per cent uptick in demand in the coming season so we are in the process of lining up more capacity to cater to that demand," he said.

Within the next 12 months, the goal is to reach USD 100 million in annualised revenue and maintain earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) level profitability over the next five years, as per the company.