Chinese smartphone vendor, Xiaomi along with its investment unit, Shunwei Capital are in advanced talks to procure 10 per cent stake in a daily commute solutions startup, Chalo.com. The deal is expected to close off at INR 50 crore.
The deal comes as a part of Xiaomi’s strategy to boost its presence in the Indian mobile application market. Chalo.com is expected to be of INR 500 crore market value.
“The deal is almost done and would give an exit to some investors who had invested when the venture was launched. The investment fits well in Xiaomi’s plans to invest $1 billion in the Indian start space,” said an internal source aware of the deal.
“Xiaomi, along with Shunwei Capital, has invested in over 10 startups in India, who operate in the mobile space, to boost the startup ecosystem. Some of the startups are Hungama, ShareChat, Zestmoney and Krazybee,” said a Xiaomi spokesperson when asked about the deal.
Chalo.com, previously known as Zophop Technologies, was incepted in the year 2014 by Vinayak Bhavnani and Mohit Dubey and helped users with schedules of metro services, trains and buses. The application displays the availability of Uber, Ola and other cab services in proximity along with the estimated cost, travel time and movement of traffic in real time in different Indian languages.
The startup is Mohit Dubey’s second venture. Previously he co-founded carwale.com in the year 2000. A platform which displayed car prices. Carwale.com was purchased by German media conglomerate Axel Springer in the year 2010.
