Baaz Bikes: Powering India’s Last-Mile Revolution on Two Wheels

In India’s crowded cities, where delivery workers weave through traffic to keep e-commerce and food delivery services running, one of the biggest challenges lies not in speed but in sustainability. The cost of fuel, vehicle maintenance, and limited charging infrastructure make life difficult for riders who form the backbone of urban logistics. In this landscape, Baaz Bikes, a startup founded by IIT Delhi alumni Abhijeet Saxena, Anubhav Sharma, Karan Singla, and Shubham Srivastava, is redefining how mobility can be made affordable, efficient, and green.

The Beginning of a New Commute

Baaz Bikes was founded in 2019 with a simple mission: to make electric mobility accessible to delivery workers. Instead of focusing solely on consumer sales, the founders targeted the fast-growing gig economy, where drivers working for platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, and Amazon rely on personal scooters for their livelihood. Many of these riders cannot afford to buy an electric vehicle outright, nor can they wait hours for charging.

Baaz introduced a model that addressed both problems. Through a subscription-based service, riders can rent purpose-built electric scooters and access a network of battery-swapping stations. This means they never need to own a scooter or worry about charging downtime. When a battery runs low, the rider simply swaps it for a fully charged one within minutes. The approach turns electric mobility from an ownership product into a service-based utility.

Technology Designed for the Streets

Every Baaz scooter is designed with Indian road conditions in mind. Compact and durable, the vehicles are built to withstand heavy use, potholes, and heat. The batteries are modular, allowing them to be swapped easily, and the vehicles are equipped with IoT-enabled tracking systems that monitor performance and usage data.

Baaz’s platform connects these scooters and batteries through a digital network, providing riders with live updates on available swapping points, remaining battery life, and route optimization. For fleet operators, this data helps manage vehicles efficiently and predict maintenance needs.

This combination of hardware and software gives Baaz a significant advantage. It allows the company to operate at scale while maintaining control over vehicle health and battery logistics, a common weak spot in the electric mobility sector.

Impact and Scale

Since launch, Baaz Bikes has grown from a small experiment to one of India’s most recognized names in electric two-wheel mobility. The company claims to have completed over 1.5 million battery swaps and logged more than 41 million kilometers across its fleet. Those numbers reflect not only user adoption but also growing trust among delivery professionals who depend on the service daily.

The subscription model has also provided a financial cushion for gig workers. Instead of paying high upfront costs for vehicles, riders can subscribe for weekly or monthly plans, which include maintenance, insurance, and battery access. This lowers barriers to entry and stabilizes income for workers in an often-volatile sector.

Environmental impact forms another core part of Baaz’s identity. By replacing fuel-based scooters with electric ones, the company contributes to reducing urban air pollution and lowering India’s carbon footprint. For megacities like Delhi and Bengaluru, where air quality frequently hits critical levels, small-scale shifts like these add up to meaningful change.

Funding and Expansion

In November 2023, Baaz Bikes raised 8 million dollars in a series A round led by Singapore-based BIG Capital, bringing total funding to more than 10 million dollars. The funding is being used to expand the battery-swapping network and strengthen the company’s manufacturing capabilities. Baaz plans to roll out new models designed for longer ranges and introduce smart energy management features.

The founders have made it clear that Baaz is not just a scooter company but an infrastructure platform. By building a distributed network of battery stations, the startup aims to create an ecosystem that other manufacturers and service providers can eventually plug into. This vision positions Baaz as a potential leader in India’s transition toward shared, electric-first urban transport.

The Road Ahead

As India pushes forward with its national electric vehicle mission, startups like Baaz Bikes are becoming essential partners in meeting government targets. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already emphasized the need for reliable battery-swapping networks, and Baaz’s model fits directly into that framework.

Yet, challenges remain. Battery standardization, urban space constraints, and the high cost of scaling physical infrastructure are ongoing hurdles. Baaz’s success will depend on how efficiently it can balance affordability with expansion, ensuring that its services remain viable across cities and towns.

Still, the momentum is clear. Baaz Bikes is more than a business story; it represents a new chapter in India’s mobility revolution. By combining intelligent design, data-driven systems, and empathy for its users, it is showing that sustainability does not have to come at the cost of accessibility.