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Riding Through Rejections: The Journey of Rapido Co-founder Pavan Guntupalli

In 2015, three alumni—Pavan Guntupalli (B.Tech/EE/2012), Aravind Sanka, and Rishikesh SR—launched their first venture, theKarrier, aiming to tackle intra-city logistics. Prior to this, each founder had experienced multiple setbacks: Pavan alone faced failure in seven startups and was turned down by investors an astonishing 75 times before landing seed funding for their pivot. “My first venture failed in under a year, but I learned that perseverance is the engineer’s greatest tool”.

Recognizing that two-wheelers could solve India’s notorious last-mile-connectivity problem more nimbly than cars, the trio rebranded as Rapido and officially launched the bike-taxi service in Bengaluru later in 2015. From the outset, Rapido distinguished itself with features such as driver verification, GPS tracking, and cashless payments, addressing both safety and convenience concerns. “We called our drivers ‘captains’—a small change in language that became the heart of our brand,” he says.

Rapid expansion followed: by early 2018, Rapido had enlisted over 50,000 “captains” and served more than 700,000 users monthly (India). As word-of-mouth grew, the platform scaled to over 15 million app users across 100+ cities, solidifying its position as India’s largest bike-taxi service. In September 2024, Rapido’s Series E round—led by global investors—raised $200 million, propelling its valuation past $1.1 billion and cementing its unicorn status. In February 2025, a follow-on investment of ₹250 crore from Prosus reinforced confidence in Rapido’s growth trajectory and provided liquidity for early employees and investors.

In online reports, Pavan recalls the darkest hour: pitches that ended with polite “no’s,” runs on empty coffee cans, all-nighters spent tweaking payment-gateway integrations. Echoing the LinkedIn mantra that had inspired thousands of aspiring founders, “Each ‘no’ was a lesson in strategy,” : “Rejections aren’t dead ends—they’re signposts” says Pavan.

Rapido’s societal impact is profound: the company now provides livelihoods to over 6 million driver-partners nationwide, demonstrating how persistence in the face of rejection can translate into both economic opportunity and transformative mobility solutions for millions of commuters.

In a world quick to celebrate overnight success, Pavan Guntupalli’s story reminds us that true achievement is built on a foundation of failures. For every headline-grabbing metric, there are countless unseen hours of problem-solving, resilience, and belief in the possibilities of what lies beyond ‘no'.”

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