Rapido Gets Karnataka Cab Licence, Secures Runway Till 2031

Rapido has finally got some regulatory breathing room in Karnataka. The ride-hailing company has secured a five-year cab aggregator licence from the Karnataka State Transport Authority, giving it the green light to run its four-wheeler cab business across the state until August 2031.

The approval comes under Karnataka’s rules for app-based transport aggregators and puts Rapido’s cab business on much firmer ground. That matters because things haven’t been nearly as straightforward for its bike taxis, which continue to be caught in a regulatory back-and-forth in the state.

Karnataka is already a major market for Rapido. Its services are available in 21 cities, including Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad and Belagavi. Rapido says more than 3 lakh captains are on its platform in the state, alongside over 2 crore registered users. With the licence now sorted, the company has one less hurdle to worry about as it grows its cab operations.

There’s another development working in Rapido’s favour. The company has also joined Karnataka’s Urban Mobility Mission, which is looking at better first- and last-mile connectivity and closer integration between different modes of transport. But the contrast is hard to miss. While its cab business now has regulatory clearance, the bike taxi side is still being debated in court. The Karnataka government recently raised concerns before the Supreme Court over safety, insurance and women passengers as it challenges a High Court ruling related to bike taxis.

For Rapido, though, the bigger story is that it isn’t just a bike taxi company anymore. What started in 2015 has gradually spread into cabs, travel bookings and, more recently, food delivery through its zero-commission platform Ownly. The company also raised $240 million in May and has been narrowing its losses while growing revenue. The Karnataka licence may only cover one part of that expanding business, but in a market as important as Bengaluru and the rest of the state, it is still a useful win to have.