Gurugram-based startup YOLO has raised $600,000 as seed funding by a VC firm and a couple of angel investors. The funds raised will be invested towards territory expansion plans, technology and marketing strategies. The company’s primary focus is to expand their full-stack bus services across the southern part of the country and they also aim to spread their wings across cities of Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kerala and many more. YOLO has a fleet of 20+ buses till date.
YOLO can be booked through YOLO App, Redbus, Paytm, MakeMyTrip or through one of their agents / physical booths.
Speaking about the funding, Shailesh Gupta, CEO & Founder, YOLO, said, “This fresh funding will help us work towards our vision. It will enable us to escalate a mobility platform that will help to bring in different forms of mobility solutions hyper-suited to the needs of cities and towns we plan to expand into, over the next few months.”
The whole idea of YOLO was born out of a myriad of self-travel experiences where the founders; Shailesh and Mukul witnessed travellers struggling with washrooms and other accommodations in the bus. They found that there was a major disconnect between what existing bus operators deliver and what travellers needed. The challenges which common people were going through during the bus journey awakened them to decide and start a premium bus line with the best amenities, at market price.
YOLO is primarily focusing on providing services and amenities to the travellers by addressing issues like hygiene and safety. YOLO Bus provides personalised bus captains, welcome kits to all passengers, high-speed Wi-Fi, hygienic washrooms, food & beverage, USB charging points, movies and infotainment. Apart from this, YOLO also provides some remarkable amenities such as a special kit for babies/ pregnant women, emergency SOS button inside the bus and special safety measures for women.
YOLO also endeavours to promote community travel and harmony by celebrating all Indian festivals. YOLO is also India’s first Fit Bus, also known as ‘Yogawali.’ At YOLO, the Yoga instructors conduct a seat yoga session before commencing each journey, thus ensuring the fitness and health of every passenger. It also has an air purifier to provide fresh air in the bus.
Mukul Shah, Founder & COO, YOLO added, “We are exhilarated to extend our services to southern part of India. We have done extensive market research on travelling in India and devised our plan to provide hassle-free travel experience to our patrons. This has been a very learning and exciting journey for us so far and we are ready to live the dream.”