Uber knocks at a new door as Rapido shuts many others

0:00Hi, this is Rohan Dharmakumar. If you've heard any of the Kenz podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering, why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sitaraman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Kenz deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called intermission. We want to tell the secrets or stories of India's greatest companies, stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they managed to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they poised today. To do that, Sitar and I have been reading books, pouring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix.

1:02Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing and extensive post-production. Sitar and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify, An Apple Podcast, or subscribe to the Kenz YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I.M. With that, back to your episode. Regularly crossing the Doomlur flyover near Indra Nagar in Bangalore. Most of the time, it's a quick ride. And he barely registers the stench that comes from the garbage dump yard below.

2:02But during office hours, things are different. On a road choked up with cars or toes and bikes, all going along at a snail's pace, the smell worsens. And it becomes unbearable. So that's when he pulls out his trump card. And entry pass to a nearby tech park that lets him bypass the traffic and the stench. It's a perk Sanjay's cotton from his second job as a corporate transport driver. And Sanjay isn't the only one. In fact, several drivers play both sides. Fix schedule corporate trips for steady pay interspersed with on-demand gigs for platforms like Uber. And now, Uber wants to play those both sides as well. In January, Uber officially launched its B2B push in India. Employee transportation services or EPS across Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. It also launched business logistics services under Uber Direct. Even though the launch was this year, the plan had been in motion for nearly three years.

3:04Nicholas Van De Look, Uber's ETS lead for India told my colleague, the Kendra Porter Debanjali Biswas, that the company first ventured into ETS with a large US multinational bank operating in India because it wasn't happy with existing services. Uber co-developed the product with the bank over 18 months before finally rolling it out to other clients. Now, India is Uber's third largest market by ride volumes right after the US and Brazil, clocking over a billion trips in a year. Globally, Uber has posted $52 billion in revenue in 2025, which is up by 18% year on year. But ETS is still a very different beast from ride hailing. The B2B transport market has its own entrenched players, tech platforms like move and sink and routematic, and fleet specialists like Ecosmobility and Orics. All these platforms typically don't mix B2B and B2C for a very good reason. Fixed schedules and on-demand rides don't play well together.

4:08But Uber thinks differently. It sees ETS as a logical extension of its existing B2C technology. All it needs is tweaks to accommodate multiple passengers, fixed timings and routes. And, with rivals like Rapido and the newly launched Bharat Paxi, squeezing its B2C business, Uber's timing could not be better. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the can. I'm your host, Rachel Varikis, and every day of the week, my co-host, Nikhtha Sharma and I will bring you one new story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday the 13th of March. India is a tough market for mobility providers to maintain a majority in, especially given the mounting competition.

5:10On 6th February, the government launched Bharat Paxi, promising search free rides at 30% below Ola and Uber's prices. Meanwhile, Rapido already claims double Uber's market share across bikes, autos and cabs, though it still lags behind Uber in the cabs department. To top it all, Rapido's and Namayatri, a community driven ride hailing apps, zero commission model has pushed Uber to abandon its 30% commission structure in favor of a flat fee. The subsequent hit to its business, though unrevealed, is bound to be massive. Considering all of this, Uber's ETS push looks pretty well timed. But look, Uber India's ETS lead insists that the company's strategy has nothing to do with the rising B2C competition. He told the Banjari that the intention was never to plug a gap somewhere. Instead, Uber saw an opportunity to be a one-stop mobility solution. Actually, the real motivation was India's own unique complexity.

6:13Look said and I'm quoting here that this country is the most challenging sandbox environment in terms of traffic congestion, women's safety and late night regulations. Basically, if you can do it here, you can do it anywhere. So, the goal then is to eventually scale ETS globally. In India alone, the employee transport market is worth $6 billion today and expected to be more than double that by 2030. The IT sector and GCC's or global capability centers employ nearly six million people in clusters across the country. Now, the market leader in this organized sector is Movin Sink, which posted a profit of Rs 95 lakh on a revenue of around Rs 550 crore in F525. Its clients include over 100 Fortune 500 companies like Google, Meta and BCG. Like Uber, Movin Sink runs an asset light model relying on small fleet partners and independent drivers

7:13rather than owning its own vehicles. See, owning fleets is both expensive and very hard to scale. Rajesh Lungba, CEO of Fleet Owner Ecosmobility, explained that providing B2B vehicles is not a high margin business. Vehicle costs per car, which includes EMI's insurance maintenance, can actually run up to Rs 20,000 to 30,000 in a month, which is nearly as much as a driver owns. So here's where Uber's existing B2C driver network, which is the largest in India, becomes an edge. Look said that Uber will get dedicated B2B vehicles at competitive rates because it's a package deal with the B2C supply. But Movin Sink isn't worth it yet. In fact, its CEO, Deepesh Agarwal, sees Uber's entry as a potential blessing. He told the Ken that a global player entering employee transport may actually grow the overall buy. More on this in the next segment.

8:19Uber has one card up its sleeve that no B2B only player can match. It can let corporate drivers flip to on-demand rides during downtime. The thing is, for specialists like Movin Sink, moving into B2C is too risky. The two models require completely different operational capabilities. Corporate transport demands compliance and punctuality. GIG rides demand speed and flexibility. Agarwal, Movin Sink CEO, told us that timing just one ride wrong can delay the whole schedule. Besides, Movin Sink doesn't need to worry about having enough rides to keep its drivers occupied. Indian multinational firms and IT companies operate large teams who are often dedicated to international clients. These teams need transport around the clock. Apart from the usual 9 to 5 grind, there are employees who start work as late as at 5 p.m. while others clock in at 12 a.m. to sync with US times. But at the end of the day, drivers will never say no

9:20to some extra income. That's what Uber is banking on, by allowing its B2B drivers to switch to B2C during off times. ETS uses high end cars, so drivers working corporate shifts will moonlight on Uber Black, the company's premium tier. Customers benefit from this too. A ride that normally costs you around rupees 1,000 could drop to rupees 800, because Uber's B2B side would now be subsidizing the difference. Also, the cost of acquiring B2C customers reduces as well. Ajesh Saklecha, a Chennai-based mobility expert, said that a corporate employee using Uber ETS for office commutes is likely to use the app for personal trips as well. In smaller towns where ride hailing is still new, ETS could also be a gateway. The thing is, as an established giant, Uber also brings some serious operational muscle. Its control rooms are large, real-time monitoring setups, and are installed directly inside client offices.

10:22Look said that since the company sits shoulder to shoulder with in-house transport teams, it can react very quickly. Move in sync by contrast runs centralized command centers. Agarwal admitted that supporting client-side rooms 24-7 at-scale was too challenging. And while these are small advantages, they're still meaningful, which gives Uber an edge over domestic players. Stay tuned. Investing in exclusive fleets and running control rooms is not cheap, which means Uber's main leverage here is its deep pockets. Saklecha, the mobility expert I mentioned earlier, said that Uber can borrow at minimum interest rates and foreign markets and deploy that same capital in India. Domestic players just don't have that same luxury, not even move in sync. In fact, the company posted losses during COVID. It has since recovered. Agarwal said that the company's profit margins

11:23hit 3% in effort 25, and are expected to reach 5% to 8% in effort 26. Still, Uber comes with a built-in enterprise sales advantage. Uber already has tie-ups with most major international companies through Uber for business, which lets employees book on-demand business travel. In fact, employees at firms like Deloitte and Vipro have been using both, moving sync for fixed schedules and Uber for on-demand corporate travel. But Uber is still learning to perfect its on-ground operations. Look said that the company's biggest learning curve is understanding how to club people together to ensure efficient drop-offs without going all over the place. After all, B2B is a high-stakes game. Like Agarwal said, a slight delay can throw off the whole schedule. And there's also the unglamorous side to all this, coordinating with admin managers at companies to sort out details like car specs, driver profiles and competitive rates.

12:25Should employees be collected from their doorstep or a common point? Should drivers call clients when late-night drop-offs are complete? These are small but painstaking requirements that differ from client to client. Also, there's integration across HR and financial platforms to deal with. Then there's also the general dealings that go hand-in-hand with an informal economy. Transport operators say bribes to local police and RTOs are a regular cost of doing business. In one case, an operator was asked to donate helmets to the local police station. Now, all of this will require Uber to be more hands-on in its dealings with on-ground-feed partners as well as a local ecosystem they're up against. It looks said that the company is going after 100% of the market. If it's realistic or not, they don't know yet. And if Uber succeeds, it might just be able to consolidate a market that's been fragmented since the 1990s.

13:31Debrick is produced from the newsroom of the Ken India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription offers daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and a whole bunch of premium podcasts. To subscribe, head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague Rachel Wergees and edited by Rajiv Sien.