Mobility startup Tummoc upbeat about hitting 1 million user milestone soon

Tummoc is a transit platform designed and curated for real-time and accurate public transport information within a city. The mobility startup provides users with the option of discovering the fastest and cheapest route. It has recently tied up with bike taxi aggregator Rapido and is in talks with many other mobility aggregators for using its platform. The company is also closely working with many state transport agencies. Tummoc has raised a seed funding round in September this year from a clutch of angel investors. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, company's co-founder & CEO Hiranmay Mallick said the company is planning to enter major cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, in the near future. It will also add new product features to the platform for making the mobility options better. Tummoc also has plans to enter into overseas market in the medium-term. It is also eyeing one million users in its platform in the coming months

Tummoc is trying to solve the problem of last mile connectivity in India. Can you throw some light that how big is the problem and how are you resolving it?

Tummoc is the first multi-modal connectivity platform in India. You may get different apps providing information about a specific city, but our platform provides all public-transport mode to the user and their commute from one place to another through this mode. So, we are creating an alternative commute platform which will give a user all different options of travelling from one place to another. It may be through bus or metro or a mix of public and private transport mode. The basic vision of the company is to make the public transport stations accessible at the doorstep or where ever you are. What we have done is we have created a technology platform where it amalgamates perfectly the public and private transport modes. We are the first company in the country to have a patent granted for the whole technology platform. The complete system and method are proprietary to us now.

Can we say that the platform makes travel cheaper for users? Are you anyway competing with the taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber?

Actually, we are a technology transit platform and this can be integrated with anybody. Therefore, we don't compete with aggregators. For example, we have recently tied up with Rapido, which is a bike-taxi aggregator. That's why we say that we are a technology aggregator, wherein everybody can come and our core competency is technology, public transport information and creating that information more actionable, accurate and realistic. All aggregators and public transport providers can come and join in this initiative. As we as such don't provide any ride, we don't compete with anybody. It is basically a collaborative approach wherein all aggregators can be on the same platform.

So, can we call Tummoc a super app platform?

We are a public transit app. But you can say that it is made in such a way that it can be a super app in the future where everybody can come in and explore all the options here.

Are you in talks with other aggregators to have tie-ups in line with the one with Rapido?

We are in talks with other aggregators. We have partnered with Rapido for their autos and bikes, which are the first last mile options.

What is your level of engagement with state transport providers?

We work very closely with the state transport providers. We have tied up with BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation). We have collaborated with HMRL (Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited) of Hyderabad. We are in constant talks with 10-15 transport agencies of other states. Our intention is to create a complete technology infrastructure for them.

The problem of last mile connectivity is a problem statement that may need solutions across many nations. Will you look at entering into other geographies?

We are a technology platform that can be used anywhere in the world. However, our focus for next couple of years will be in India because we want to solve the problem in the country first. We may look at overseas expansion may be in late 2023.

What are your profitability plans as B2C (business to consumer) platforms usually have longer gestation period?

Definitely, our focus is on profitability. But, we remain on an investment mode now. We focus on profitability on a longer go, but we will invest to get enough number of users, good user dependency, then we have many monetisation plans to be profitable.

What is the user base now? What are our expectations as far as growth rate is concerned?

We have close to 3,00,000 users of our platform now. Last three months, we have seen good traction in terms of user addition. Every month, we are growing at more than 20 per cent. Our growth rate is likely to be multi-fold in next three-four months of time as we plan to enter big cities along with addition of new features. We are likely to see around one million users in the next 3-4 months.

Tummoc has recently raised $540,000 in seed funding round from a clutch of angel investors. Will this round of funding lead to capacity building?

We are a seed-funded company now and backed by good number of investors. We have a good team. In coming months, we will have a much bigger team and are planning to go to more cities. We are looking for a better adoption of this product at different parts of the country. We have a 18-member team, now out of which half are in engineering. Hiring is going on now and we should go to 25-30 people in next couple of months. The hiring is happening predominantly in the technology and data space.

How many cities the app is currently available? What are your growth plans in the near future?

We are currently in three cities- Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. We plan to enter into all major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai. Tier-2 cities like Lucknow, Kochi are also on our radar.