Car-Sharing Platform Zoomcar To Go Public Via Merger With Innovative International: Report

Zoomcar, the Bangalore-headquartered firm, operates in more than 50 cities in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Egypt

Zoomcar has more than 30 lakh active users, with over 25,000 vehicles registered by their owners.

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India-based car-sharing platform, Zoomcar Inc, has reached an agreement to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Innovative International Acquisition Corp., citing sources familiar with the matter news agency Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Shares of the merged company, to be called Zoomcar Holdings Inc., are expected to trade on the Nasdaq.

According to the report, Zoomcar operates a marketplace for private vehicles, with owners making their cars available on the platform and users able to rent them by the hour, day, week or month.

The Bangalore-headquartered company operates in more than 50 cities in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Egypt.

According to the sources, the merger with the special purpose acquisition firm implies a pro forma enterprise value of about $456 million for the business.

Representatives for Zoomcar and Innovative International declined to Bloomberg’s requests for comments.

Zoomcar was founded in 2013 by Greg Moran, who is now chief executive officer, and David Back, who is no longer with the company.

The platform has more than 30 lakh active users, with over 25,000 vehicles registered by their owners. Zoomcar, which doesn’t own any of the vehicles rented through its platform, takes 40 per cent of each transaction.

The company is part of a small but burgeoning cadre of companies such as San Francisco-based Turo Inc. that have extended the ride-sharing model to the vehicle itself.

According to Bloomberg, last November, Zoomcar got $92 million in a Series E round led by SternAegis Ventures, bringing the total it has raised to $332 million, according to data provider PitchBook. Sequoia Capital India is an investor and board member. Waze co-founder Uri Levine is chairman of the board.

Innovative International, which is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mohan Ananda, raised $230 million, including so-called greenshoe shares in its initial public offering last year, according to a statement at the time.