Japan’s biggest taxi company-Nihon Kotsu, bets big on GHV’s backed MyTaxiIndia

MyTaxi India (MTI), the second startup to signup with GHV Accelerator for its Accelerator Program,has bagged Pre Series-A funding of USD 500,000 from Nihon Kotsu Co., Ltd. (Japan Taxi), a century old leading taxi company from Japan.The deal was facilitated by GHV.

1D9Qow_ICo-founded by Anshuman Mihir, Mohit Rajpal and Satyakam Rahul in 2012, MyTaxiIndia (MTI) offers a complete taxi rental solution for city tours, outstation travel or holidays, both for B2B and B2C clients. The online platform serves as a one-stop-shop for customers to conveniently choose from the complete spectrum of chauffeur-driven transport services. Within just 3 years of its launch, MTI has the largest ISO 9001:2008 certified taxi network in India, with over 4000 taxis operating across 102 cities.

Though still a fairly young startup, MTI’s concept has received validation from renowned names in the industry. The company plans to use the fresh funds to scale up operations across other cities in India so it can get a bigger piece of the pie in the fast-growing Indian car rental market that currently is pegged at $9 billion. Of this, only 4-6 % is organized.

According to Anshuman Mihir, Co-founder of MTI, “Thanks to GHV, MTI has been able to secure this round of funding by one of the oldest companies of Japan, Japan Taxi. We are lucky that the timing has been just right for us, with the Indian taxi market at its zenith we feel as if we made a few good choices in terms of GHV that we are getting validation for our model from a company like Japan Taxi. It gives me and the other co-founders tremendous confidence and helps us charge towards our goals with more zeal and responsibility.”

As the head of the third generation family business of Nihon Kotsu(Japan Taxi), Ichiro has lead and promoted unique and innovative taxi services in Japan – special taxis for pregnant women, kids, the elderly, sightseeing etc. He is also accredited with the development of in-house taxi dispatch application.

“For a long time, Taxi and Limousine service has been just one of the options of transportation to many customers. What we’at weeing to do is to win the heart of more customers by upgrading their taxi journey to a memorable moment which is more than just a transportation. We would like to provide our superior ride experience with the spirit of “Omotenashi (Japan Hospitality)” to all over the world”, said Ichiro Kawanabe.

This deal is proof of the value that GHV Accelerator brings to the table for the startups it onboards as part of its Accelerator Program. Only recently, it had facilitated the Pre Series-A funding of USD 500,000for LazyLad, its first startup for the Accelerator Program, just 60 days into the Program.

VikramUpadhyaya, Chief Evangelist and Mentor at GHV says, “At GHV Accelerator , the startups & founders are put in 12 months accelerated mode to raise next round of strategic funding by achieving better business metrics through controlled environment. Founders are highly mentorable and were incredibly great in doing fast track growth through controlled environment and were able to close their next round of funding from Nihon Kotsu in Just 2 months. They are technically graduates from GHV Accelerator in just 2 months. The Investment from NihonKotsu(Japan Taxi) brings strategic partnership where they can bring best industry practices too in Indian Taxi Industry.”

GHV has strategic tie-ups with World Innovation Labs (one of Japan’s largest VC funds), Lets Venture, as well as NASSCOM’s prestigious 10,000 Startups program. It plans to accelerate 25 startups over a period of three years with the intent of helping them grow into billion dollar enterprises.