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The round was led by Paytm which also saw participation from the likes of Freecharge’s Kunal Shah

Auto-rickshaw, the ‘iconic’ three-wheeler taxi used by millions of Indians for daily commuting, is not going to go off the road anytime soon, if the action in this space is any indicator.

Jugnoo, a new upstart in the rickshaw aggregation space, has just raised US$3 million, that too from the likes of SoftBank-backed Paytm, and Kunal Shah, Co-founder of Freecharge (a Snapdeal-owned mobile recharging platform).

Chandigarh-based Jugnoo plans to use the Series B round for pan-India expansion, besides streamlining processes in all new cities. It has plans to venture into 40 cities by the end of this year.

The company will face tough competition from Ola Auto, the rickshaw booking platform of SoftBank-backed Ola, besides Unitus Seed Fund-backed mGaadi.

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Founded in 2014 by Samar Singla and Chinmay Agarwal, Jugnoo is targetting students, working professionals and masses that are dependent on public transport for their daily conveyance. The firm claims to have approximately 3,300-plus autos registered with it.

As of now, operations are available in 22 cities. It claims to be witnessing around 15,000 daily transactions and have a user base of one million.

Jugnoo had earlier raised US$1 million in angel funding, followed by US$5 million in Series A co-led by SnowLeopard and Paytm in May this year.

“Jugnoo is trying to solve a very fundamental problem. Given their grasp of the auto rickshaw space and their current traction, it just reconfirms that there is a huge potential in aggregating autos,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm.

Image Credit: Savvapanf Photo/Shutterstock

The post Jugnoo nabs US$3M to take on Ola, mGaadi in rickshaw aggregation space appeared first on e27.

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