with its free-commision policy.
Despite having success across Europe for over a decade, the giant transportation companies, Ola and Uber, failed to increase their income in countries like India. Namma Yatri was launched in 2022 and became their main competitor in the Indian market.
Namma Yatri is a “Direct-to-driver” ride-sharing app, meaning that, it doesn’t get any charge from the drivers. Most of the long trips are even cheaper than on other apps, and all the payment goes entirely to the driver and their family.
The Namma Yatri app is a product of Bengaluru’s Autorickshaw Driver’s Union (ARDU), and its parent company is Moving Tech. The app can be found on the Open Network for Digital Commerce, which is an interoperable e-commerce scheme endorsed by the Indian government.
The platform connects clients with auto-rickshaws and taxi drivers without any charge to the customer or the driver. As an alternative, Uber’s rival app collects a minor monthly fee from its driver partners. As a comparison, Uber and Ola, pay only 25-30% of the trip cost to the drivers.
The open-source app representatives said that they have reduced the costs by cutting some technological facilities, such as map integration and payment systems. They also rely on the word-of-mouth concept and avoid investing in a big marketing campaign.
According to its public dashboard, more than 46 million rides have been completed through Namma Yatri Uber rival’s app, since its 2022 debut. Also, the app is functional in more than 6 cities, including Bengaluru and Hyderabad two of the biggest Indian towns.
The Indian authorities have been working on developing the “India Stack” platform, which is a set of open APIs for identity, payments, and data sharing. The platform was designed to bring the Indian economy and public services into the digital age. It can also be used by the private sector to deliver services more effectively and inclusively to India’s 1.4 billion civilians.
Google has promised to invest $10 billion in India and participated in Namma Yari’s $11 million pre-Series A funding round. Namma Yari then stated that Blum Ventures and Antler were the companies that co-managed the investment.
Karthik Reddy, a Partner at Blume Ventures, said: We were amazed by the simplicity of what the tech and a robust product can do to solve mass mobility. We are glad to partner with an exceptional team and back their grand vision.”