Bounce is a bike rental startup which was quite the rage amongst the IT industry crowd as their bike rentals made daily office commute quite easy. Owning a four wheeler in a metropolitan city is quite a bread ache owning to endless traffic snarls. This was where Bounce fit in perfectly as it offered a faster and hassle free commute. All a person had to do was open the Bounce app, book the nearest available bike and drop it off at their desired location. The app was easy to use, bikes were in great condition and the prices were extremely affordable and attractive.
However, Bounce was affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic both directly and indirectly. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived on the Indian shores, the Central Government announced a strict nationwide lockdown which was extended till almost 6 months. The lockdown meant the public were working from home as offices were closed. This meant there were no commuters and meant there were no takers for Bounce. As demand continued to plummet, Bounce laid off 130 workers from its 600 strong workforce in June 2020. The total number of daily rides after the lifting of the lockwon is around 20,000, compared to around 130,000-140,000 a day prior to the lockdown in March 2020.
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As the lockdown was lifted, Bounce hoped to see its demand increase but with multiple companies realising the higher productivity levels of remote work are not in a hurry to recall their employees to offices anytime soon. Therefore demand levels continued to be low and this meant a second round of layoffs at Bounce. In the most recent layoffs, around 200 employees have been laid off along with receiving a severance package of three months salary and medical insurance for one year.
According to a popular news daily, Bounce is working with the employees who were laid off to forward their resumes and get them placed in other organisations. Moreover, with the failing demand Bounce had sold off all their petrol bikes and shuttered their operations in all major cities except Bengaluru. Bounce is now planning to launch a fleet of electric vehicles as the operating costs are cheaper compared to fuel based vehicles. This includes an electric scooter developed in house which will become available on their platform. A top executive at Bounce said the company still has around $ 70 million in cash from its previous fundraise and would utilise that capital to grow the EV business.