Meru Cabs raises from Rs 150 crore from Brand Capital

Taxi service provider Meru Cabs has raised Rs 150 crore ($25 million) from Brand Capital, the investment arm of Bennett Coleman and Co (BCCL), the company said on Thursday. "Meru will use these funds to further strengthen its foothold in the Indian market with a focus on providing quality service based on a sustainable business model," the company said in a statement.

Meru Cabs CEO Siddhartha Pahwa said the company has been working on a sustainable business model since its inception and has grown its operations across cities and continues to provide varied services. "With the ongoing transformation in the taxi industry, this move is in line with the company's efforts to showcase its services to a larger customer segment via a bouquet of media channels," he added. Meru will be deploying these funds primarily to increase brand salience and awareness with an aim to widen its customer base, the statement said.

The company had last raised Rs 300 crore ($50 million) from its existing investor India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA) in May 2015. Brand Capital Director Shrenik M Khasgiwala spoke of Meru's profitable and growing business, strong technology and analytics-driven platform complemented by an experienced management team as the pull factors.

"We are confident that this partnership will help accelerate the process of creating the requisite brand positioning as well as awareness for customers who are present across mediums or platforms like print, OOH, digital, social media etc," Khasgiwala added. India's organised taxi-hailing market, at Rs 7,900 crore ($1.2 billion), is estimated to hit Rs 1 lakh crore ($15 billion) by 2022. The company has presence in 24 cities in India, with a fleet size of 20,000 vehicles.