Yulu is India’s largest EBITDA-profitable shared electric mobility company. It was founded in 2017 by seasoned and serial entrepreneurs with a mission to make urban commuting clean, inclusive and sustainable. Yulu is driven by the three guiding principles of urban mobility: accessibility, availability, and affordability.
In a recent interview, Abdullah interacted with AMIT GUPTA, Chief Executive Officer, YULU in which he discussed about primary factors behind achieving EBITDA+, supporting the quick commerce ecosystem, Yulu’s AI-powered electric vehicles are transforming the last-mile mobility landscape for a greener, cleaner India, innovative strategies is Yulu deploying to reshape urban mobility and address the challenges of sustainable transportation, Yulu’s approach to battery swapping differentiate it from competitors.
1. Yulu just achieved EBITDA+; what were the primary factors behind this noteworthy achievement?
Yulu is proud to be the country’s largest shared electric mobility company and one of the few to have achieved profitability. A number of factors have been instrumental in getting us to this milestone– Yulu’s strong product-market fit to power mobility for instant hyperlocal deliveries, the surging demand for quick commerce, e-commerce, and food delivery in India, and policy tailwinds for the EV sector. By capitalising on these factors, Yulu has grown 7 times both in terms of revenues and users over the past two years.
The profitability milestone is a result of innovation and hard work on multiple fronts. Yulu and Bajaj Auto Ltd. have co-developed world-class purpose-built electric two-wheelers for shared mobility. This vehicle is designed for high safety, comfort, and durability. We use an AI and machine learning-powered technology stack and a proven operational playbook honed over several years. Besides these, we have built a very dense and reliable battery-swapping network with the help of our energy partner, Yuma Energy to provide non-stop service to our users.
These factors have helped Yulu create a fast-growing and highly scalable business while optimising its operating costs. Today, we are present in 12 cities including Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi-NCR. We have powered more than 800 million km of green rides to date, saving significant amounts of carbon emissions.
2. How is Yulu playing a pivotal role in supporting the quick commerce ecosystem, and what impact has it had on delivery efficiencies?
Quick commerce is growing exponentially in India, doing 2 million orders per day, and is expected to grow 10 times over the next 5-6 years. Yulu enhances delivery economics for the quick commerce ecosystem in multiple ways.
For example, we enable brands to achieve their manpower onboarding targets, which helps them scale up faster. This is because our vehicles are exempted, from Central Motor Vehicle Act and Central Motor Vehicle Rules vide notification GSR 291 (E), from driving licence or registration requirements. This helps brands to access a large pool of gig workers (delivery riders) who don’t have their own vehicles or driving licences.
Yulu also makes deliveries speedy and seamless. Its practical form factor enables delivery riders to bypass congestion and easily travel between the dark stores and customers’ doorsteps. We also use IoT and data science to forecast vehicle demand, track vehicle health and predict maintenance needs. This increases vehicle availability and uptime for brands.
Quick commerce brands also incur significant cost savings with Yulu. By removing fuel and maintenance from the equation, Yulu enables 30-40% lower delivery costs for brands compared to ICE vehicles. Brands can choose to pass on this goodness to their riders and/or consumers.
Owing to all these factors, Yulu has a ~40% average share of vehicles at the dark stores in its operational areas, with some areas going up to 80%.
3. Can you share how Yulu’s AI-powered electric vehicles are transforming the last-mile mobility landscape for a greener, cleaner India?
Air pollution threatens urban liveability and public health in India today. Services like Yulu are tackling this challenge on the ground. Yulu has been decarbonising many forms of short-distance urban mobility, from hyperlocal deliveries to commutes and leisure rides. And the results are massive. We have prevented 27+ million kg of CO2 emissions to date. We also help our brand partners like Blinkit, Swiggy, Zepto, Zomato, Minutes, and other brands to make 20 million green deliveries every month.
I believe that Yulu’s biggest contribution to sustainability is our ability to democratise EVs for users from across economic strata– including first time users. Anyone can download the Yulu app and rent an EV at an affordable cost. This ease of use makes Yulu inclusive for a huge population, especially those who don’t own a licence or vehicle – like gig workers, leisure riders, home-makers, students, etc. In fact, delivery partners save 30-40% more money when using Yulu instead of an ICE vehicle. All these advantages have enabled Yulu to transform urban mobility at scale.
4. What innovative strategies is Yulu deploying to reshape urban mobility and address the challenges of sustainable transportation?
When it comes to mobility, urban users have traditionally faced challenges of access, availability, affordability and sustainability. To solve these problems, Yulu has innovated across all three of its service verticals — people mobility (where a user rents a Yulu by the minute); leisure mobility (where they rent Yulus for multiples of an hour); and goods mobility (where users can opt for multi-day rentals of Yulu’s DeX delivery EVs).
Yulu has bridged the mobility access gap by making its Miracle and DeX EVs available at designated Zones and Centres. These locations and the number of available EVs at each location are visible on the Yulu app, making it easier for users to find vehicles. The Yulu Centres, where delivery riders pick up and drop off their Yulu DeX EVs, also act as service, maintenance and repair centres for our fleet. Our easy and intuitive app also simplifies access for users. A user can download the Yulu app to unlock and lock their EV, track their journey, make a secure payment, book a battery swap and do much more at the push of a few buttons. In addition to these, we have a complex data science-backed analytical engine that ensures that enough EVs are available for users during peak hours and in high-demand pockets.
We are also one of the most affordable options for users. Yulu’s per-kilometre cost works out to Rs.2.5 when a user buys one of our long-term rental plans. Yulu has also launched an industry-first feature in the form of kilometre-based rental plans. A rider can buy a pocket-friendly plan based on their actual usage (in terms of day-and-kilometre combinations) rather than getting a one-size-fits-all plan that may not match their needs.
Yulu’s battery swapping-based mobility model is also unique. This model lends itself to quick one-minute swaps, which minimises the downtime of its EVs and maximises the rider’s on-road time. Yulu also has a close partnership with its associate Yuma Energy, a leading battery-as-a-service (BaaS) player whose dense battery swapping network mitigates range anxiety for our users.
Finally, we support several sustainable development goals (SDGs) through our smart and zero-emission vehicles that help decongest and decarbonise cities and bring India closer to its climate action targets. So, as you can see, innovation on every front – from hardware and software to pricing and sustainability – is at the heart of Yulu.
5. With Yuma Energy at the forefront of energy storage and EV charging, how does Yulu’s approach to battery swapping differentiate it from competitors?
Yulu’s shared mobility service is deeply integrated with the battery-as-a-service (BaaS) offering of our associate, Yuma Energy. One example of our joint innovation is our virtual battery token booking system. Using the Yulu app, a rider can view battery availability at nearby Yuma stations and book a battery token, which reserves a battery for them in advance. They can ride into a Yuma station at the appointed time, get a fresh battery within minutes, ride out, and continue working and earning.
This innovation effectively solves range anxiety for Yulu’s users. Delivery partners, in particular, need predictability around batteries because the amount of time they spend working is directly proportional to their income. With our token system, the rider has an assured battery waiting for them, and so they feel relieved and ‘freed up’ to focus on making deliveries rather than worrying about battery availability.
6. How is Yulu leveraging AI and data analytics to optimize its fleet management and enhance the rider experience?
The wonderful thing about smart vehicles is that they generate data, which in turn can be harnessed to improve operational performance, fleet utilisation and customer delight. Yulu’s data science teams mine rich insights from vehicle data, customer usage trends and on-ground operations data. These analyses throw up rich insights that we use to improve our service.
Let’s take maintenance as an example. Our machine learning models help us proactively identify faults and fix vehicles. In many cases, the fault is fixed via an ‘over the air’ software update, so the vehicle doesn’t even need to be brought back to a physical workshop. Hence, data analytics has been vital for Yulu to increase uptime for users through predictive fault identification and timely maintenance.
Analytics also helps us predict demand more efficiently at different places or times of the day, based on previous trends. This allows us to rebalance vehicles from low-demand areas to high-demand ones. For users, this means that they can always access and enjoy Yulu’s services without any break.
7. Could you elaborate on Yulu’s vision for the future of shared electric mobility in India and its expansion plans across key cities?
Shared electric mobility has a huge runway for growth in urban India. By solving constraints related to greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion and fuel costs, shared EV services showcase a path towards a smarter and better future for our planet.
Yulu sees a huge opportunity in quick commerce, where we have found a strong product-market fit with our world-class EVs, AI-enabled full stack EV platform, deep brand partnerships and the trust of lakhs of delivery riders. Capitalising on these advantages, Yulu will expand to new cities as well as newer pincodes in existing cities. In addition to goods mobility, we will also grow on other fronts like people, leisure and personal mobility. We will also grow our franchise partner-led presence to more non-metro cities. In all, Yulu aims to be in 15 cities by the end of this year.
Yulu will also benefit from Central and State-level policies to boost transport electrification and e-commerce. This includes the ONDC initiative, which will unlock additional earning opportunities for Yulu riders.
8. What are the biggest challenges Yulu anticipates as it scales its battery swapping and charging infrastructure, and how is it planning to overcome them?
The scaling of battery swapping infrastructure presents several challenges. These include securing prime real estate in high footfall, customer-facing locations, negotiating reasonable rental agreements to ensure operational viability, ensuring reliable electricity supply and coordinating with multiple government agencies for the necessary clearances. Yuma Energy, an entity co-founded by Yulu and Magna, works on these aspects. Yuma also engages closely with key government stakeholders to influence policy decisions and has developed an operational playbook to ensure the timely readiness of locations.