Code, Community, and Capital Efficiency: How Namma Yatri (Blume Fund IV) Outmaneuvered Ride-Hailing Giants
When auto drivers in Bangalore discovered Yatri, a local mobility app from Kochi, they tracked down the creators of the app (Mags and Shan who were then part of the Juspay team) with an urgent request: build something similar for their city. Their frustration was clear - existing platforms were taking 30% of their earnings.
For Mags and Shan, the founders of Namma Yatri, the solution wasn’t just building another app based on traditional ride hailing models. They wanted to create a platform that was fair to both drivers and customers. This led them to take an unprecedented step of becoming auto drivers themselves!
“If we’re building for drivers, we have to understand their world,” recalls Mags. After weeks of 12-14 hour shifts, they understood the real pain points - crushing commissions, uncertain incentives, and a system designed to extract maximum value while offering minimum support.
Armed with their technical expertise and affinity towards open source technology, they were able to re-engineer the ride hailing model from the ground up. This enabled them to create a platform that drastically reduced the cost per ride. As a result, they could now pass the savings to drivers and customers flipping the pre-existing ride hailing model on its head. Drivers earned more, customers spent less and the platform was able to maintain profitable margins.
Today, Namma Yatri has achieved remarkable scale with extraordinary efficiency:
130 million rides completed
700K+ drivers onboarded
₹2000 Cr in driver earnings generated
13 million riders served
Only $5 million spent vs. competitors’ $3 billion to reach this scale
Beyond ride hailing ahead, Namma Yatri is bringing about another game changing intiative, this time aimed at totally transforming urban mobility. They are doing so by:
Building a unified transit platform that connects metros, buses, and last-mile options through a single interface - reducing journey planning time from 15-20 minutes to under 2 minutes
Creating smart mobility hubs at metro stations with real-time integration of buses and autos, leading to 25% increase in first-time public transport users
Developing an open mobility network that lets cities build custom solutions on top of Namma Yatri’s infrastructure - from smart traffic management to dynamic route optimization
Their vision goes beyond just moving people from point A to B. By building this digital nervous system for urban transportation, Namma Yatri aims to reduce congestion in our cities while making public transport the preferred choice for India’s growing cities.
“We’re not here to disrupt,” says Mags. “We’re here to enable and empower.” In an industry known for burning cash and creating dependencies, Namma Yatri has proven that being agile and smart beats being big and wasteful.
Team Blume