Amit Gupta’s Yulu Bike is helping create a cleaner planet

If you do a search on Facebook for Amit Gupta, you will find at least a thousand of them. The name might be extremely common in India, but here I am speaking about a person whose credibility is extremely uncommon.

This Amit Gupta is the former co-founder of InMobi, which became India’s first startup unicorn. For the people who don’t know InMobi, it is one of the fastest-growing global mobile advertising networks, that enables advertisers to discover their target audience on mobile internet sites.

After spending 13 years in the advertising startup, IIT Kanpur BTech graduate Amit Gupta moved out of InMobi and started a new company in 2017, Yulu.

“Yulu” – What a bizarre name some might say, maybe this time Amit wanted to have a name that is unique.

Amit Gupta’s Yulu bikes are revolutionising the way people commute. The bikes are not only pocket-friendly but also environmentally and ecologically friendly. Yulu is a battery-operated two-wheeler that makes it completely non-dependent on fossil fuel, but an extremely efficient commute for last-mile connectivity.

Increasing population, rapid urbanisation, and shoddy road infrastructure have made traffic snarls, air pollution, and public inconvenience common in most cities in India. Travelling in metros or cabs is also not a very convenient option for most city dwellers.

That’s where Yulu fills the gap, with no requirement for a helmet or driving license, bikes from Yulu make short-distance travel immensely comfortable for the users and also help to reduce the carbon footprint.

Leveraging mobile apps, IoT, and artificial intelligence as the technology levers, the vehicles can be rented seamlessly on a pay-per-use basis. Users can book a ride from their mobile app and the smart bikes can be unlocked via QR codes.

Yulu has also created a cost-efficient battery-swapping network of mom-and-pop stores across its operational areas. The users can use the mobile app to find the nearest store to get the discharged IoT-enabled battery replaced.

The founder’s passion for clean energy and “sustainability first approach” is evident. In ‘The India Advantage (TIA) Summit’ held in Bengaluru last year, Amit Gupta alluded to this vision and objective.

In November 2019, the company raised USD 8 million in its Series A round, led by leading automobile manufacturer Bajaj Auto Finance. The current capacity is approximately 15000 electric vehicles, and the company plans to expand to a fleet of 100 thousand across major urban centres in India in the next few months.