Idea behind the venture was to organise fragmented car rental and taxi booking services across the country: Anshuman Mihir
Idea behind the venture was to organise fragmented car rental and taxi booking services across the country: Anshuman Mihir

Amid the hustle and bustle of city life and the daunting work hours in the office, many people wish to escape may be on a long holiday or a nearby drive to rejuvenate. From the past few years, such practices have increased, resulting in a profitable business idea for mega minds. The concept of sharing or booking independent conveyances has witnessed colossal footfall and why not? It caters to both set of travelers, one who want to save on travelling expenses and others who want independent and luxury travel. Jumping in the ongoing competition, My Taxi India uses an optimistic approach towards giving a positive travelling experience. In conversation with Retailer Media, Anshuman Mihir, Founder and CEO, My Taxi India talks about the concept and the future plans of the brand.

Tell us about your last funding and how My Taxi India has utilised it?
Till date we have received two major rounds of investment. One is 100K USD from GHV. The second investment is half million USD from Nihon Kotsu from Japan.
Our first target is to spread across 30 million internet users.  In coming years, we plan to expand using print and electronic media to reach higher number of consumers.

How the demand of MTI cabs has increased after Even-odd formula?
The odd even initiative by the government has led to upsurge in our sales by more than 15%.

How was the idea of your startup conceptualised? What is the need you are addressing in the market? Is there a story behind the name you have given to your business?
The idea behind the venture was to organise the fragmented car rental and taxi booking services across the country.
S.K Rahul (Co-founder) and me together decided to work on a start-up portal like makemytrip.com. For this, an important conference was planned in Hyderabad.  Although, flight and hotel were easily booked but getting the booking of  bulk taxis for  guests for 7 days was a huge hassle.  To book 265 taxis,  almost every big transporter in Hyderabad was contacted by making a series of phone calls and pleas. The whole experience was unsatisfactory and exasperating. However, the whole episode gave us a remarkable return, that is MyTaxiIndia.com.

What is your business model? Please share numbers of founders, product/services offered and current business size.
At My Taxi India, we provide services for Local, One way and Outstation or holiday taxi travel. Currently, we are operating in 102 cities with 5000 plus routes. The company was conceptualised by 3 founder members and presently have total fleet size of more than 4000.

Who is your target consumer? Could you please share how you have detailed your consumer?
My Taxi India caters to both B2B and B2C customers. The target consumers of our services include Daily travellers, Business travellers, Holiday travellers, Travel Agents and OTA.

What is your current distribution in brick and mortar space? What are your future distribution plans?
At MTI, our vision is to organise the fragmented transport system and make it universally accessible and useful. In 2016, we plan to penetrate in tire 2 and tire 3 cities and spread across 200 cities with fleet size of over 1 Lakh.

Have you raised any funding so far? What are your plans to use this funding for?
Till date we have received two round of investment 100K USD from GHV and half million USD from Nihon Kotsu, Japan. We plan to use this funding for product development to reach 200 cities in the year 2016.

What was it that attracted the investors to your business? Have you had to pivot your business in anyways that has worked for you?
Investors were interested in our business model. To cater to the market size of 9 billion, the way we are building the product to systematise and improvise the intercity business attracted the financiers towards our venture.

What is your team size? What is your office culture like?
We are an employee friendly organisation. Presently we have a proficient and skilled team of 29 employees.

What has been your A-ha Moment in the business? (The high point)
The high point of our business was the growth by 117% in the month of Dec after launching the product

How do you see growth scenario is this business? What are your future scale-up plans?
Our aim is to organise and boost the intercity taxi business by giving technology tools for smooth and scalable business. This market is mounting by 25-30 % YOY and has huge potential and growth prospects.

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