This Gurugram-based startup is transforming the bus mobility space in India

” Bus mobility is the most neglected part of our transport system and there is massive scope for tech-enabled transformation in this space,” said Amit Gupta, co-founder of gogoBus, a transportation-as-a-service (TaaS) platform focussed on streamlining intercity bus travel in India. Gupta, who led the enterprise division at Shuttl joined hands with Avinash Bagri of TripScanners to launch gogoBus in late 2019.




Given the highly fragmented bus mobility market in India, the duo created a connected app-ecosystem to help fleet owners manage their daily operation while ensuring a seamless travel experience to consumers. Mr Gupta tells Plunge Daily about gogoBus’ journey so far and how it plans to transform the bus mobility space in India.

1) It’s been around one and half years since you launched gogoBus. Please take us through your journey.

During my stint at Shuttl where we were running intra-city bus operations for offices, I realised that the entire bus mobility market is really big in India. We also found that the number of organised players working in this sector with a tech-first approach were minimal. Despite rapid tech advancement in other sectors, the digital penetration in intercity mobility space was not even 10%. With our prior experience in bus mobility, we focussed on using the tech know-how to track bus movement in order to keep passengers updated and minimise their waiting time. We also recognised the need for better communication between passengers and their families during the course of the journey which included access to the vehicle’s location in real time. Also we can leverage technology to improve services by drawing from user experience. Given the limited tech-penetration, we saw this as a big opportunity. So, I along with Avinash ventured into the space and launched gogoBus in 2019 with an aim to democratise access to technology for both fleet-owners as well as consumers.

2) gogoBus has also developed separate apps to serve its customers. Swami App, Sarthi app, Sathi app Mitra App, please tell us about these products.

So, we launched a consumer app in January last year just two month before lockdown. During this period we received a significant amount of insight. We tried to understand the problem from consumers’ perspective. Upon more digging, we found the entire backend connection- the operators’ system-was not connected with the digital booking platform which emerged as a major consumer lag. So, we decided to realign our product to build connectivity.

So, we developed Swami App to help operators keep track of consumer booking and boarding and entire P&L on a real-time basis. Then, we built Sarthi app for drivers, which basically facilitates contactless boarding of passengers and also helps them keep in check any unauthorised boarding. Besides, it could also be used for live route tracking. Then , we have Sathi App which has been designed specifically to digitise offline bookings. In this process, we also realised that in long distance journeys, a driver is often accompanied by a helper. So, we also looked into the aspect of empowering helpers in order to improve consumer experience. So, we developed Mitr App that allows a helper to contact operators to address the consumer grievances.

So, these apps have been designed to vastly improve customer as well as operator experience but we also realised that there must be a mechanism to ensure smooth functioning of entire operations. So, we developed the Sanchalak app, which is used to keep a tab on day-to-day operations. Our command centre team keeps track of bus movement, its location so that if any inconsistency occurs, we flag the issue to the concerned agency. So, an entire app ecosystem is connected to the one back end, it helps us manage operations in an efficient manner.

gogoBus  co-founders- Amit Gupta & Avinash bagri

3) Buses operate in a very traditional set up in our county. Barring a few metros, People still prefer to book their bus tickets by calling an agent or visiting the bus station. How you see technology playing a role in changing this set up?

I believe technology is a major enabler which people in tier II and III cities are also realising. With the rapid tech adoption, operators, agents and consumers are now aware of multiple benefits of digitisation. So, we are operating in several towns of Eastern India where we are seeing very aggressive adoption of technology. Earlier, due to absence of an app providing end to end solutions, customers kept changing services. However, once they onboard our platform, they stick to it because the value we are delivering to them stands out.

So, I would like to share how technology is enabling change in smaller cities. We started operating on the Ranchi-Dhanbad route in October last year after the first lockdown. In the first week of the operation, a person from Dhanbad was boarding the bus only to drop her daughter to Ranchi where she had to catch a flight to Delhi. So, in order to save him this inconvenience, we told him that he will be getting a tracking link after booking the ticket from our platform. And using this link, he can have access to the real time location of his daughter during the course of journey. So, he did not have to accompany her all the way to Ranchi and then return to Dhanbad. Upon hearing this, he was greatly relieved. So, the major takeaway was that a basic feature like tracking should not be restricted to metro cities only, rather it should reach every nook and corner of the country.

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4) Please tell us about your team, your operational growth and overall presence in the country.

So, We resumed operations in July after the second lockdown was relaxed and we have onboarded 200 plus buses on our platform. From July onwards, we are registering almost 100% growth month on month basis and with this pace we are targeting to reach 100+ cities in the next 3-5 months. We are a 12-member team focussed on providing the best experience to our consumers. While being a consumer-first company we are also committed to solve the pain points of operators.

5) Your journey also almost coincided with the pandemic. So tell us about the initial hiccups that you might have faced and the opportunities came along covid.

The Pandemic hit us when we were just starting out and it caught us off-guard. So it took us a while to figure out our way forward. But during this period, we went into the root of our problems and realigned our products to solve the pain points of both the consumers and the operator. So, I would say, it was more of a blessing in disguise because our products have become more robust with an entire ecosystem of user-friendly apps.

6) Please share with us your future roadmap for growth. How do you see this bus servicing landscape changing in coming years?

We are heavily dependent on bus mobility. Whenever we talk about mass commute or high capacity transportation, then buses and trains are our only option. To meet the massive demand for tech-enabled bus mobility, we are planning to reach a figure of at least 5000 buses in the next four to five years. Also due to the pandemic, safety and hygiene have taken center stage. So, we are also making efforts to train operators to help them adopt best practises, apprise them of the latest protocols and enable them to serve consumers better. So, we are streamlining the information asymmetry and bringing in the best practises of other industries to meet the transportation needs in bus mobility.

7) Please tell us about the business revenue model of your startup.

We take a certain percentage of commission on every ticket booked from our platform. The commission we charge is in tune with the cost we are incurring. We are also cognizant of the fact that COVID has severely impacted the demand market and operators need to have a support system. So, we have kept our commission percentage to a level so that it does not impact their earning potential. Also, we continuously work to improve their earnings so that they can share a part of the revenue. so we are more of a partner supporting them in their journey.

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8) Please tell us about your investors who are supporting you in your journey and what makes them bullish about you?

We have a very interesting set of investors. ixigo has been supporting us since the beginning of our journey. We are also being guided by angels like Rajesh Sawhney (GSF accelerator) ,Abhishek Sharma (ex-COO, Dineout), Anil P Gupta (ex-Country Head Honeywell), and Anil Atri (Co-founder, Ecom Express). Singapore-based micro VC Magehold is also supporting us in this journey. One common thread connecting all of our investors is their trust in the future potential of sustainable mass transit options which we have created.