Aravind Sanka, Co-Founder, Rapido

Ride-hailing platform Rapido, after spreading across 300 cities over the last 18 months, is now planning to add another 300 cities over the next 18 months, especially in rural and smaller towns where public transport systems are in scarcity, a top official has said.

“Eighteen months ago, we were present in 90 cities. In the last 18 months, we have launched 300 cities and in the next 18 months, we want to launch 300 more cities, so going deeper into every taluk, every village in the country. Our focus is also how do we make our existing captains (drivers) earn more,” Aravind Sanka, Co-Founder, Rapido, told businessline.

He said till two years ago the ride-sharing applications (apps) were available only in top 100 cities across India, but rapidly that mindset has changed and now, the reach has gone up to 400 cities. Rapido has around 30 lakh vehicles for rides in a month and the target is to reach up to 50 lakh vehicles on a monthly basis very soon, he said.

“Two years ago, we had a barrier of top 70-80 cities, but now we have removed that barrier altogether and we are definitely seeing tremendous results. Imagine what happens in smaller markets, where you don’t even have a public transport — forget about Metro, which is only top 20 cities or so... That is what we are trying to do — to move people from one place to the other — and motorcycles in such places are enabling us to do because they are available in every village or a town,” Sanka explained.

Creating jobs

He said since there is also huge unemployment in smaller markets, Rapido is creating local employment. So, instead of them going to the nearest metro city or a bigger town, they can earn or can call it as an extra income, if they are already employed.

“What we have also realised is there a lot of unemployed people...25 per cent of our captains earn just the college fee, tuition fee and their rent from our platform. You just work for three hours in the evening may be after their college, they can make ₹5,000-6,000 a month, which is a significant amount for a student,” he added.

In terms of financials, Sanka said Rapido is profitable with a growth of around 100 per cent every year, and recently raised $240 million for its expansion to new cities and new category launches like e-rickshaws parcel delivery.

Published on June 9, 2026