Two-wheeler riders harrowed by breakdowns in the middle of nowhere and out of fuel situations now have a rescuer in gear6.in. The six-month old Bengaluru-based startup offers vehicle service, repairs, insurance and emergency services, including the pick-up and delivery of the vehicles, and has serviced up to 1,700 two-wheelers till date.
Having tied up with 100 authorised service centres of nine top two-wheeler brands Hero, Honda, Bajaj, Suzuki, TVS, Vespa, Yamaha, KTM and Royal Enfield, gear6.in has simplified the process of getting a two-wheeler serviced. “From picking up and delivering the vehicle to diagnosing the trouble, having it serviced, gear6.in takes care of everything,” said Harrsha Chaittanya, co-founder, gear6.in.
Co-founded by Rakesh Vaddadi, Srikanth Nelakuditi, Kumud Kumar and Harrsha Chaittanya, the inception of the company happened when one of the co-founder Vaddadi faced a problem with his bike and did not have a quick solution to go to. It has been in operation since November 2015, and has raised $500,000 seed funding from Ninestarter, an early-stage seed investment company.
With a 30-member team, the company has a strong presence in South and East Bengaluru, and targets a customer base of young professionals, who suffer from paucity of time.
Chaittanya notes that despite repairs being a bigger problem area, vehicle servicing receives higher requests on the platform. “About 80% of the business stems from vehicle servicing. It is notable that even when there are repairs, customers prefer to have a full servicing done. About 5% is from insurance services and the remaining is from punctures and emergency services.”
On raking in the moolah
The company generates revenue from its pick up and delivery services wherein it charges Rs 75 for the first 3 kilometeres and Rs 5/kilometere there onwards. On generating revenue, “We plan to induct a commission-based model wherein service centres are payable for every service order they receive from the platform. But, for this to be implemented, our operations have to scale and we are working on that,” said Chaittanya.
Currently, the company is running an average ticket size of Rs 2,000 per customer, and has recorded Rs 25,000 as its biggest service, which was for a Pulsar that had to be repaired for damages from a road accident.
Within the following year, the company plans to enter the four-wheeler segment and plans geographical expansion into 11 cities in the next 18 months, the first of which it plans within the quarter.
