2018 saw a flurry of startups in every lifestyle sector, be it food, fashion, wellness, beauty and more. Bengaluru is always buzzing with activity and there’s always something new and innovative with myriad choices to pick from. Many promising new ventures set shop in the city this year. Here’s a lowdown on some of them that left us impressed hands down…
BY NAMITA GUPTA
What’s it about? PEDL is India’s first technology enabled cycle sharing service by Zoomcar. It allows a user to rent cycles by the hour or day. It is a dockless cycle sharing service that allows users to seamlessly unlock cycles around them and complete short distance trips in a frictionless fashion through an app. It was launched in Bengaluru successfully and now operates in across eight cities. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Zoomcar office in Bengaluru, its service is presently spread in 7 cities – Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gurugram.
Man behind the making: The man behind PEDL is Greg Moran, co-founder of India’s first 100% self-drive rental car company, Zoomcar. After a successful run with Zoomcar, a self-drive car service, Greg who has dedicated his career to sustainable development across the globe, started Pedl. He worked in various financial, operational, and strategic roles within the international energy and infrastructure sectors and was involved with projects on six continents, totalling over $12 billion. He studied at USC’s Marshall School of Business, where he was the Founder and President of the USC Energy Club, Southern California’s largest such club and was also a graduate in International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania.
What’s unique: “We have done over 3m rides till date on PEDL. Our idea was to extend our India leading self-drive platform to micro mobility which would allow for first and last mile connectivity. Our plan is to further build our capabilities across micro mobility in the coming year. Our aim is to provide convenience where you can get eco-friendly transportation for short travels such as errand shopping, last mile connectivity, exercise and daily travel to work. The point to point nature of the service offers significant flexibility to the end user across the day. PEDL cycles come with various unique features such as custom designed light weight alloy frames and drum brakes, anti-slip chains, airless solid tyres, height adjustable seats and multipurpose basket. These cycles are designed to support intensive use while ensuring industry low maintenance costs and extremely high levels of customer satisfaction. The cycles are built with smart locks which are easily unlocked using a QR Code. PEDL’s robust IoT stack is an extension of Zoomcar’s Cadabra IoT platform and includes real-time GPS tracking, solar battery charging, and built-in alarms. Each cycle also comes outfitted with a multipurpose basket to afford the customer greater convenience in travelling for work or leisure,” shares Greg.
