CHENNAI: The serial entrepreneur with the midas touch, C Sivasankaran, founder of telecom major Aircel, has entered the app-based on demand taxi business. Sivasankaran will be backing and acting as mentor to new cab aggregator start-up UTOO, which was launched on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters during the launch, Sivasankaran said that the segment had potential and competition will only make things better. The start-up will be taking on giants like Ola and Uber from day one.
His newest venture, meanwhile, is being funded by friends and family and will have former Aircel counterpart K V Baskaran as CEO. UTOO has announced that it will match the lowest price of its competitors. However, it will not incentivise the customer or the driver and will have a “no surge” policy at all times.
“The goal is not a major market share in India, but running a sustainable business making profit quarter by quarter,” he said. While he did not disclose the planned investment in the company, he said it would invest around Rs 350 crore to Rs 1,200 crore depending upon requirement.
UTOO will scale up to nine cities with at least 1,00,000 cars in the first phase. The company has plans to complete the first phase in four months and the second phase in 18 months, it said, setting its sights on Bengaluru, Pune and Jaipur after Chennai.