Wheeling out an innovative concept

Startup saga

Ever wondered how it would be if you could ride your favourite bike for a day or perhaps keep it with you for a month? Well, with the concept of bike rentals catching on in the city, one can now opt for a rented bike of their choice just by paying a pocket-friendly amount.

‘Wheelstreet’, a bike rental aggregator, is a new addition to this growing platform. Launched by two school friends, Moksha Srivastava and Pranay Shrivastava, in 2014, ‘ Wheelstreet’ was initially started in Delhi. However, with an aim to widen their reach from a tourist-centric market to a more versatile one, they shifted the headquarters to Bengaluru recently.

“We aim to reach out to all those professionals and interns, who travel from place to place for work, so they can have their own bike for easy commute.

Currently, we are present in 27 cities which includes Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Hyderabad to name a few,”  says Moksha.

So how did the idea of a bike rental startup come about? “There are two different stories behind the conception of this idea. During his college days, Mohit owned a Pulsar 220 and his friends also used the bike, so one day he actually started charging them Rs 100 per day. I, on the other hand, wanted to have my own bike. Renting a bike in those days came with a lot of maintenance issues yet the services weren’t provided as promised. One day while sitting at a coffee shop we came up with the idea of starting an online platform for bike rentals,” says Moksha.

After a thorough market research for the next three months, the duo came up with ‘Wheelstreet’.

Now they have a mobile app for both vendors and customers who can easily access the service. Before taking any vendor on board, there is a quality check comprising 40 parameters, which includes possessing proof of all the required documents and credibility.

The customer has to produce documents like driving licence and any government issued ID proof before taking the bike on rent.

“There is a GPS attached to every bike that helps in monitoring the movement and tracking the speed limit. When a customer books a bike, we take a refundable deposit amount of Rs 999 and the rental amount,” explains Moksha.

Ask her how this idea is going to help people in the long run and she quickly replies, “With the increasing traffic in the city, renting a bike can prove to be quite helpful and makes more sense. That apart, we are also constantly helping young professionals take to rented bikes and spend a lesser amount rather than buying a bike and spending a higher sum. We are trying to break the notion and make people aware that renting a bike costs much lesser than they assume.”