Date: December 15, 2023. — FreshBus is looking to raise ₹100 crore for expansion. The company offers premium inter-city electric bus services. It has already secured ₹26 crore in seed funding from ixigo, a travel booking platform.
Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, who established and scaled Abhibus, India’s second-largest bus aggregator, which ixigo purchased in August 2021, founded FreshBus. FreshBus offers cutting-edge electric buses that are eco-friendly, comfortable, and reasonably priced. The goal is to completely change the bus travel experience in India.
A full-stack business model will power the smart bus platform, offering a plethora of cutting-edge services such as alcohol checks, Wi-Fi, personal charging stations, and noise-free air conditioning. The smart bus platform will also feature cozy seating, a uniformed and welcoming staff, and real-time temperature and air quality monitoring, all made possible by IoT technology. This comprehensive approach aims to enhance the overall travel experience and convenience for passengers.
The smart bus platform will provide a plethora of cutting-edge services, including alcohol checks, Wi-Fi, personal charging stations, noiseless air conditioning, comfortable seating, a uniformed and friendly staff, and real-time temperature and air quality monitoring made possible by IoT. A full-stack business model will power this platform.
With the introduction of 24 electric buses, FreshBus will debut its services simultaneously from Hyderabad and Bengaluru. It also plans to reveal its initial routes for operation in March 2023. In the next two to three years, the EV bus startup wants to expand to over 1000 buses throughout India.
Reddy claims that the idea behind FreshBus was to solve the issues that inter-city bus passengers in India faced. Furthermore, these issues include untimely arrivals, unplanned stops, inadequate customer service, incompetent personnel, low standards of cleanliness, awkward boarding locations, and unclean restrooms for women, among others.
We thrill to collaborate with ixigo. They have a track record of successfully establishing and expanding travel businesses in India. We believe that their help and knowledge can elevate the standard for bus travel in India. Moreover, we aim to win over millions of passengers.,” the speaker remarked.
The intercity bus travel business is estimated to be worth close to $20 billion overall. They anticipate it will continue expanding over the coming years. FreshBus aims to become a technology-driven smart bus operator, controlling the entire traveler experience from booking, tracking, and finding their electric intercity coaches. The FreshBus website and mobile app will also accomplish this.
“We delight in supporting FreshBus. The company is solving a huge problem in the inter-city bus travel segment with a sustainable and innovative solution,” stated Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and CEO of ixigo. We think that electric buses will be the way of the future for transportation, and we are pleased to help FreshBus in its efforts to improve bus travel for millions of Indians by making it more comfortable, convenient, and environmentally friendly.”
