Strolling down Wheelstreet to find the perfect ride

Whether it’s an urgent need to find the best mobile way to commute to work, or a sudden urge to take a road trip unto adventure, just head to Wheelstreet and rent a bike. It all began in 2014 when Pranay Shrivastava and Moksha Srivastava, buddies from school, decided to create a bike rental platform, guided by their own set of experiences.

Sharing Wheelstreet’s inception with DH, Moksha — who is also the Chief Marketing Officer — says, “In the past, Pranay, who is also our CEO, would often lend his motorcycle to friends. And when he needed the bike, it would be away. Hence, he came up with the idea of charging his friends a fee whenever they borrowed his bike. Meanwhile, while working in Delhi, I borrowed a scooterette for a hefty sum, and it turned out to be zero value-for-money.”

The two friends researched and learnt that there were vendors in the market, who rented their own fleet of bikes to tourists for road trips across the country. “We decided to create a platform online to aid people in borrowing a two-wheeler on rent, in a reliable and hassle-free way,” she mentions.

Wheelstreet works as an aggregator, wherein vendors’ listings are put up on its homebuilt website and app, from where it enables customers to borrow bikes, choose pick-up locations, and also make payments (via Paytm wallet).

Wheelstreet is operational in 27 cities, partnering over 160 vendors, who have over 1,800 two-wheelers between them, which include scooterettes, non-geared scooters, commuter bikes, performance bikes, superbikes, tourers, and luxury cruisers, among others. A bike can be rented for as low as Rs 13 per hour, with the fuel expenses being borne by the customer.

“We don’t own any fleet, which is all owned by the vendors, who also provide multiple pick-up points. All the information is published on our website for the ease of customers,” Moksha says, adding that even vendors are provided with their own platform.

Recently, the firm launched a tours section to promote road trips to getaways, such as the Himalayas. There are 20 vendors covered under this section. And Wheelstreet is bullish on the touring segment.

The firm also aims to go abroad, and will be entering Bali soon, roping in at least three vendors. “Southeast Asia has a huge bike rental market. If Bali goes well, we will definitely explore other foreign markets,” she says.
Explaining the bike rental market in India, Moksha says that while Bengaluru has around 200 vendors, there are 40 potential bike rental markets in India that can be developed and tapped.

Wheelstreet has received $500,000 in funding till date up to pre-Series A, while it plans to close the Series A round of $3-5 million in the next two months.

“We get a 20% commission on each booking. Last year, we touched Rs 1 crore in revenues, and hope to continue our good ride,” Moksha concludes.
DH News Service­