Led · Equity · May 2021

Zoomcar operates a car‑sharing platform focused on emerging markets. The company announced a definitive merger agreement with Innovative International Acquisition, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, that will take Zoomcar public. Upon closing the business combination, the combined company is expected to be renamed Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. and to list its common stock on Nasdaq. The transaction carries an implied pro forma enterprise value of approximately $456 million. Concurrent with execution of the merger agreement, an affiliate of Innovative’s sponsor invested $10 million in Zoomcar via a convertible promissory note. The note’s repayment obligation is structured to be offset against the sponsor affiliate’s $10 million subscription for 1,000,000 newly issued shares of Innovative at $10.00 per share upon consummation of the business combination; if the business combination is not consummated, the note will be exchanged for a Zoomcar convertible promissory note and the subscription agreement will terminate. Zoomcar operates a car-sharing marketplace that allows users to rent cars by the month, week, day or hour. The Sequoia Capital India-backed firm is active across several nations, with India as its largest market and presence in Southeast Asia and the MENA region. It works with individuals, SMEs that operate fleets and semi-professionals, and maintains partnerships with banks and insurance firms. The company employs more than 300 people and has over 10,000 cars on its platform. Zoomcar expects its platform to focus heavily on electric vehicles in the medium term. It plans to expand into more than 20 countries over the next 18 months and is exploring a public listing, aiming to file for an IPO next year. Financially, the company has raised $92 million in the latest round and $207 million in total to date. Zoomcar, founded in 2012 by Greg Moran and David Back, operates a self-drive car rental and shared subscription service using a hyperlocal pickup model. The firm currently provides services in cities including Mumbai, Jaipur, Kolkata, Chennai, Guwahati, and Ludhiana. It has said it will enhance its technological and data-science infrastructure, upgrade its Internet of Things systems and its shared subscription offering, and expand to more parts of the country. Financially, the company recently received Rs 41 crore (about $5.5M) from parent Zoomcar Inc via an allocation of 82,566 shares at Rs 4,967 apiece. Previous financings include a $30M round in January 2020 led by Sony Innovation Fund and a $40M round in February 2018 led by Mahindra & Mahindra. Zoomcar positions itself as part of a new generation of transportation services promoting shared mobility. Zoomcar India Pvt. Ltd is described in filings as a self-drive car rental start-up. The company operates a platform that rents cars to customers for self-driving. Recent filings with the Registrar of Companies show Zoomcar raised $3.6 million (Rs 25 crore) in debt funding. That debt financing was provided by Trifecta Capital, according to a YourStory report quoting the RoC filings. The articles do not disclose operating metrics, detailed terms of the financing, or stated future plans. Zoomcar operates a Zipcar-style on-demand car rental service alongside programs to grow inventory, including ZAP (a leasing scheme for new car buyers) and a multi-month subscription product. The company also runs Pedl, a bike-sharing service that the firm intends to scale into many more cities. As of the article it operates in 29 cities with about 2.7 million registered users, roughly 3,500 cars and customers have completed over 1.1 million trips; Pedl was running in ten cities with ~500,000 transactions per month. Zoomcar has begun piloting electric vehicles with Mahindra; the fleet had about 50 EVs at the time, targeting 500 in the coming months and a goal of 50% EVs by 2020. Financially, Zoomcar reported revenue of Rs 121.2 crore (~$19M) for the year ending March 2017, a loss of Rs 100.4 crore (~$15.6M) for that year, and said it had turned EBITDA positive at the end of 2017 while remaining unprofitable overall. Management projects that reaching 15,000 cars could translate to north of $100M in annualized revenue.