Founders Hardik Rijhwani and Rahul Mulchandar pitching Pune-based LEAP – a platform to cater to the mobility needs of Indians by providing self-ride electric scooter rentals in a sustainable, affordable & reliable manner
App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=leap.bike
“Born in a rural Indian middle class family in the late 80’s, the mode of personal mobility I got most familiar with was a two wheeler. My family of four would go out on Sundays to nearby places on a motorcycle, making me always aspire to buy one when I grow up,” says Hardik.
“Moving to Pune for Engineering, I struggled first hand on the daily commute due to broken public transit and lack of funds to buy one and ended up spending on an average ~120 mins for a daily commute of 50kms. I finally paid the down payment on my 1st scooter from my first paycheck in 2011 to get access to my fundamental need of Mobility. The running cost of the scooter was ~150/day along with ~500/month in maintenance. Having suffered this lack of access first hand I believe I understand the needs of our users and hence aim to improve accessibility in a shared, sustainable and affordable manner through our platform.”
The startup aims to make Mobility accessible to all Indians. To help move Indians from point A to point B in the most affordable, sustainable and reliable manner democratizing access to the fundamental need of Mobility.
The founders have known each other for 10 years and discussed many ideas over the years but this one was very personal as both of them come from middle class backgrounds and had experienced firsthand the challenges with mobility. Hardik got started with LEAP first and Rahul left Dallas, USA two months ago to join him in India to solve this pressing problem shared by many Indians.
Hardik Rijhwani
BE Computers, Pune University
8yrs- Product Manager, Consultant, Analyst
Rahul Mulchandani
MS Business Analytics
7yrs- Risk Analyst, Software Engineer
