How an American came to India, launched a successful startup, and now plans to go international

Zoomcar CEO Greg Moran. Photo credit: Zoomcar.

In 2011, Greg Moran spent three months traveling across India, talking to thousands of people for what he says was primary research for his fledgling startup idea: to launch a car rental service in Asia’s fastest growing economy.

The New York resident decided to marry his passion for environment and numbers, and launched Zoomcar in India – where less than 10 percent of city residents own cars, and public transport can often be a nightmare.

“In 2012, I booked a trip to the US for Thanksgiving and I didn’t know if I was coming back. Then we signed a deal with Ramesh Tours and Travels [owned by famously rich barber Ramesh],” he told Tech in Asia.

Ramesh, for those who do not know, is popularly known as the “Barber with the Rolls Royce.”

His company owns 127 cars.

“For the first 15 months we were just in Bangalore and then we launched in Pune, and then we went to Delhi,” said Greg.

See: Ford leads $24m funding in India’s Zoomcar

“Going global is the next big thing. Not this year, but I think 18 months out that makes sense,” he said.

Nothing’s locked in, but countries under consideration are Indonesia, the Philippines, or Nigeria and other African markets.

“There are a lot of big markets there where people are hungry for the same things Indians are hungry for.”

American in India

Zoomcar is India’s biggest app-based car rental, along the lines of Hertz or Avis, but working entirely online. Greg likes to say they are a technology company first. The company’s fleet of 2000 cars is more than double the size of its nearest rival, Myles, which commands about 800 cars.

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