IntrCity SmartBus, an Indian technology-powered intercity bus platform, has raised $30 million in funding to expand its network across small and medium-sized cities and towns in the South Asian country. The all-equity Series D round led by A91 Partners values the Noida-based startup at $140 million post-money.
Intercity mobility is accelerating in India, with more people moving from small towns to big cities for work or education.
To meet this demand, New Delhi has significantly expanded the country’s highway infrastructure. According to Indian government data, the national highway network has increased by more than 60% in the past decade, from 56,723 miles to 90,847 miles.
Railroads, although widespread, remain capacity constrained and unable to keep up with the growing demand for interstate travel. Therefore, long-distance road travel is an important option. However, state-run intercity bus services are limited and often inadequate in terms of reliability and comfort, and IntrCity SmartBus aims to fill this gap.
Unlike traditional operators, IntrCity SmartBus operates on an asset-light model by partnering with local bus owners and equipping its vehicles with proprietary hardware for real-time tracking, co-founder and president Kapil Raizada said in an interview.
The startup also centralizes ticket reservations and route planning through its digital platform, helping to determine service frequency, boarding points, boarding stations, and even seating configurations based on demand.
To ensure safety and consistency, IntrCity has trained personnel, known as “captains,” on each bus, Raizada told TechCrunch. Most vehicles are equipped with washrooms, and the company has also installed a fully staffed, air-conditioned boarding lounge to enhance the pre-departure experience.
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“All of our buses are cloud-connected,” he said. “We have an in-house built bus operation system that monitors and manages many parameters such as CCTV, acoustics and temperature levels.”
Founded in 2019, IntrCity SmartBus began as an online rail ticket sales platform under the RailYatri brand. This entry point gave the team early insights into intercity travel behavior and unmet demand in road-based mobility, Raizada said.
Currently, RailYatri contributes only about 10% to the company’s total revenue, while the SmartBus business accounts for the remaining 90%, he added.
IntrCity SmartBus operates approximately 600 bus trips daily, transporting 20,000 to 25,000 passengers each day. This equates to almost 700,000 people per month. The platform works with more than 50 local bus operators, operating trips averaging over 311 miles. Approximately 95% of our services are accommodation services, primarily for discretionary travel needs such as work, education, or important commitments.
The startup’s typical passengers are between 20 and 45 years old and include small business owners, trainers, government officials, sales professionals, and students.
The startup follows a hub-and-spoke model and has identified 15-16 major economic hubs across India. We operate 13 to 14 of these hubs across 15 states. The network covers all of northern India, from Jammu to Uttarakhand, and much of the south, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
“Understanding what consumers need requires a lot of data processing,” said Manish Rathi, co-founder and CEO of IntrCity SmartBus. “This includes decisions such as what the layout of the bus will be, whether it will be a full sleeper or a hybrid vehicle with both sleepers and seats.”
IntrCity SmartBus achieved revenue of 5 billion pounds (approximately $57 million) in the last fiscal year, an increase of 67% year-on-year. The startup predicts revenue of more than 7 billion pounds (about $79 million) this year. The company has maintained EBITDA plus for the past several years, and is aiming to become fully profitable this year.
With the latest funding, the startup plans to expand “deeper and wider” in the country, improving customer experience and safety, as well as upgrading its fleet management technology.
“One of the big challenges with bus transportation across the country is that people have concerns about buses. Buses are seen as incomparable to trains and planes,” Raizada told TechCrunch. “We want to make buses a popular mode of transportation in India.”
According to a recent report by online bus ticketing platform redBus, more than 223 million intercity journeys were made in India in fiscal 2025. The department added more than 72,000 new intercity routes last year, along with approximately 6,400 new buses, expanding capacity by an estimated 265,000 seats per day.
India is witnessing a wave of new-age intercity bus startups like Zingbus, LeafyBus, Fresh Bus, along with IntrCity SmartBus. European giant Flixbus also entered the Indian market early last year, suggesting it is gaining traction in the sector. Still, IntrCity believes competition is secondary to execution.
“India is in a completely different situation when it comes to road travel. When something goes wrong, it will go wrong,” Rati said. “We’re not a network-first company. We’re an operational excellence-first company.”
