Mahindra Group is all set to enter the cab aggregator for corporates market with Alyte. Alyte is a mobility service for corporates. It will be a B2B service, means the cab aggregator platform will allow companies to provide cab services to their employees. The app will work only for partner companies. Employees will have to punch in their employee IDs or other account details to use the app.

Alyte will put Mahindra into direct competition with Ola, which runs a similar service called Ola Corporate, and Uber, which runs Uber for Business.

“We are introducing a nationwide brand around our mobility service, called Alyte, this quarter,” Rampraveen Swaminathan, CEO, Mahindra Logistics, told ET in an interview.

Alyte will be launched next month. Experts suggest that it will give tough competition to the duopoly of Ola and Uber in Indian cab aggregator market.

More importantly, Mahindra Group is bringing all mobility businesses under a single business vertical – Mobility Services Sector. Alyte, Meru Cabs, taxi cab service, Glyd, e-taxi services, and First Choice, used car business, all will come under this sector. The company also says that 30% of Alyte’s fleet in three to four years will be electric.

A cab aggregation business is a natural step through the value chain for the Mahindra Group, which already manufactures many vehicles that companies like Uber and Ola use. In fact, M&M had inked a 40,000 car deal with Ola in 2016. Thus, by getting into the cab aggregation business itself, the group can move up the value chain and end up pocketing even more value for itself. The vertical integration can help the company unlock efficiencies that Uber and Ola don’t quite have — as Mahindra will both manufacture the vehicles and operate them, it might reduce friction in the overall scheme of things for Alyte.

Source: officechai.com