Meet man, IITian who faced 75 rejections, then built Rs 93500000000 company that competes with Uber, Ola, he is...

IIT Kharagpur alumnus Pavan Guntupalli has made a name for himself in the entrepreneurial field. He is competing against industry majors such as Uber and Ola as a co-founder of Rapido, India's top bike-taxi service. Pavan, who was born and raised in Telangana, excelled in computer programming and stock trading. Because of his exceptional academic brilliance, he was able to clear the IIT-JEE exam and gain admission to IIT Kharagpur, where he studied for a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Communication and Electronics Engineering.

After graduating in 2012, Pavan became a software developer at Samsung Research India.  He learned a lot about operator compatibility and communication protocols during his time there. Pavan wanted to launch his own company, even though he had a bright future in the software sector. This goal prompted him to join Arvind Sanka in founding "theKarrier," a logistics firm.  Regretfully, the business failed to take off and was finally shut down.

Unbothered by setbacks, Pavan and co-founders Arvind Sanka and Rishikesh SR founded Rapido in 2015. Rapido aimed to offer reasonably priced autorickshaw and bike taxi services for convenient and economical transportation.  But raising money was difficult; 75 investors turned down his proposal, expressing skepticism about Rapido's capacity to take on well-established firms like Ola and Uber. The pivotal moment occurred when Hero MotoCorp Chairman Pawan Munjal saw Rapido's potential and made an investment in the fledgling company. The official debut of Rapido in 2016 was made possible by this endorsement, which opened the door for other investors.

Rapido launched 400 bikes in three Indian cities -- Bengaluru, Delhi, and Gurugram--after receiving some new funding. About 5,000 people had signed up by January 2016, and by December, that figure had risen to 1.5 lakh.

Rapido made a distinct focus, whilst Ola and Uber limited their operations to India's major cities. Pavan and his group focused on tier 1 and tier 2 cities, where everyday commuting issues were common yet ignored. They provided short, fast, and inexpensive rides, with prices starting at just Rs 15-a straightforward solution to a huge issue. Rapido was able to carve out a space for itself in India's disjointed mobility market because to this clever strategy. Rapido now has thousands of rides every day, operates in more than 100 cities, and has amassed over 5 crore app downloads.  What started out as a traffic annoyance evolved into a revolutionary concept for urban transportation. Pavan Guntupalli's story demonstrates that all you need is that one 'yes,' regardless of how many times you fail.