The Success Story of Shuttl

“Our endeavor is to deliver a safe, reliable, and environmentally sustainable mobility for urban India” - By Amit Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of Shutt

 

Corporate people who want to skip the hardship while standing in a queue for the metro are well-aware of the services provided by Shuttl.

 

We’ve all observed the dismal condition of public transportation in India, be it the poor infrastructure or the dubious state of the vehicles. This is why people generally prefer to travel in their personal vehicles. 

 

You can imagine what would happen if everyone who owns a vehicle uses it to travel to their offices. The government has been also trying its best to solve this problem. This is where Shuttl enters the game and endeavors to solve this issue. This young startup makes commuting convenient for corporate people.

 

Shuttl has a mobile application that offers services like Ola and Uber but there is a difference as it gives buses, mini buses, vans, and SUVs in its fleet, from which people can select according to their comfort.

 

Let’s begin to understand how the founders of the platform got this phenomenal idea and what were the challenges faced by the startup.

 

 

The Inspiration for Shuttl

 

Two IITians Deepanshu Malviya and Amit Singh thought to solve the traveling problem of the people who traversed daily to their offices, and indeed they did it. They founded the “Shuttl”.

 

Shuttl is the largest office commute service provider in India which is operated in more than 6 metropolitan cities across the country. The Shuttl app mainly focuses on providing affordable, dignified, and most importantly safe service to the corporate people.

 

If you have traveled in a public bus, you may have noticed that the condition of the buses is very poor, you don’t get seats, and it is not possible to travel by public transport daily.

 

So, the solution to all these problems is to ride with Shuttl, as it gives you the best transport buses that are budget-friendly, also, it saves your time, and you will get your reserved seats.

 

Treating customers with care, advertising strategy, financial strategy, social media, good control on customers and timely serving are some of the marketing strategies of the company.

 

 

History of Shuttl

 

In April 2015, the journey of Shuttl started from Gurugram, Haryana, India. While Deepanshu and Amit were working at the e-commerce company Jabong, they noticed the issue of overcrowded buses.

 

Take a look at the success story of Ola cab

 

Generally, when we see a hanky or any such item in a bus seat we automatically understand that this seat is reserved for someone. So, this concept planted an idea into the minds of the founders of the platform and they took the decision of launching Shuttl.

 

This is how they both used this concept and technology together and came up with an app-based service that lets customers reserve their seats online.

 

The platform gives transport administration to its citizens in metropolitan cities such as Noida and Gurgaon. In the early stage, within a very short period, Shuttl has grouped around over 200 buses and continues to rise at a rapid rate. 

 

Recently, they are only serving their services in metro cities but they are planning to expand their services in other cities also.

 

 

How does the service work?

 

• Shuttl helps corporate people to travel to their workplace comfortably without too much expense.
• The most valuable thing about the Shuttl application is that it permits just those people who have a verification code to use the Shuttl public vehicle. The customers can get this code on their application after the completion of the booking.
• Shuttl transport vehicles work at fixed timings and from Monday to Friday.
• You can pay through online payment apps like Paytm, or you can also pay it early by using the Shuttl Wallet.
• If you frequently take Shuttl, you can also choose a membership that gives discounts for their members.

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Interface of Shuttl App

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• The company has many well-maintained buses that convey people from metro stations to notable office areas near them.
• HUDA City Center metro station to Medanta, Sector-32, Noida City Center to Fortis Hospital, etc, are some of the top routes of these buses.
• They allow the number of customers according to the availability of seats.
• On booking the closest get area, the application gives you the quickest way to reach there and you can also track your ride.
• You have to show your pass that you have received on booking and after that they allow you to board on the bus.
• The company makes sure that you ride safely to your destinations. For that, they keep the records and accreditations of administrations and drivers.
• They also prepare the drivers about using the application course, and lead with an update course held at normal stretches.
• You can refer to your friends about the app and if he/she uses your referral code then you both will be rewarded.
• The app enables you in forwarding your rides, left in the prior pass to your new pass.

 

 

SWOT Analysis of Shuttl

 

Strengths

 

• The major strength of the company is that they were unique. There are cabs, taxis but bus service with such good infrastructure is what people want. 
• Other factors which offer the platform an upper hand include it being less expensive, convenient for the workers and corporate people, timely, and the availability of pre-booking facilities.

 

Weaknesses

 

• Shuttl provides bus services so they need more people to operate. The bus consists of 30 seats on an average and they require at least 15 people to run the bus.
• The company has faced a lot of hardships in the starting stage. In the fiscal year, 2015-16 Shuttl suffered a massive loss of around $8.2 Million.
• They have also faced some regulatory issues with the state governments.

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SWOT analysis of Shuttl

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Challenges

 

• Security and safety
• Consumer satisfaction is low within this market
• Nourish customer loyalty
• Opponent activity at the regional level
• Driver behavioral problems
• Monetary related problems

 

Opportunities

• The company is providing the services in limited cities but they are expanding day by day. Thus, in the coming time they will expand their services in other cities of India.
• They will also take over all other bus services like this and ensure that they are the main supplier.
• The founders are planning to start something new by selling daily essentials on buses like egg, milk, bread, butter, curd, etc.

 

“Our customers are demanding food to be served on buses. The metric we track, ie Items sold per ride, show that about 90% of the people are buying something which validates that there is a consumer demand for it….we are working with cloud kitchens and building an ordering product to scale this offering,”- Amit Singh, co-founder

 

Threats

 

There is a great competition in the market and due to this COVID-19 situation every business is severely hit. Some of the leading competitors of Shuttl are:

 

• ZipGo
• EazyDiner
• VAJOR.COM
• WhistleDrive VProtect India
• Commut
• The Man Company Cityflo

 

We would also recommend reading the success story of FoodyBuddy

 

 

Funding and Investments

 

Till the data, the company is funded by 22 investors with Sojitz, SIG Global India Fund, SPARX Group, Moving Capital being a few most recent names in the list.

 

It has raised a total of $122.3M in funding over 13 rounds and on feb 18, 2020 their latest funding was raised from a Corporate Round round.

 

Has Shuttl won any Awards?

 

In June 2018, the International Ashden Awards was held in London in which Shuttl was honored in the sustainable mobility category.

 

In the FICCI Road Safety Awards of November 2017, the company had won the Special Jury Award in the category of Road Safety Product and Solution.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Shuttl is a startup that cracks the cliche of taxi reservations and has used mixed business and technology in an inventive manner. Both the founders have made it possible for the office going people to save time as well as money.

 

Also read: The Tale of Cure.fit

 

This idea of booking the seat on a clean and safe bus is better than booking cabs daily. In the coming future, they will expand their services and this advancement in the transit business will shortly remake the transportation system.