Cityflo, a Mumbai based intra-city bus commute app for employees has announced that it has raised INR 57 crore or $8 million in Series A funding round. Led by Lightbox Ventures, a VC firm that also backs mobility startups such as Droom, Dunzo among others, the round also saw participation from existing investors India Quotient.

Cityflo had earlier raised INR 3 crore from India Quotient and angel investors in 2019 and had received seed funding from IDG Ventures (now Chiratae) in 2015.

Founded in 2015, Cityflo partners with bus operators and connects residential areas in Mumbai such as the Navi Mumbai, and Thane, to major commercial hubs in the city. According to the company website, Cityflo currently has a network of over 2000 buses, ranging from 13 to 49 seaters (tempo travelers, luxury and prime buses) in Thane and Mumbai. The company logs over 8,000 bookings daily while its buses make only two trips a day.

Speaking about the investment, Siddharth Talwar, Partner, Lighbox Ventures said, “The public transport system in India is broken and overstressed. For those who drive their cars to work, the problem is compounded by traffic and long travel time. The pandemic has made the situation more delicate with heightened apprehensions around safety, hygiene, and sanitisation. This segment, therefore, has the potential to scale up and become the next big thing”.

CityFlo intends to utilize the fresh infusion of funds to strengthen its existing operations on heavy traffic routes and build the service as a go-to brand for Mumbai’s large working population.

The investment comes as a good sign for the mobility sector which has been severely hit owing to the ongoing pandemic.