Your bus or cab vs. mine: Shuttl, Quick Ride, et al. stake their claim on the office-commute market

Commuters on a Shuttl bus; courtesy of Shuttl

Synopsis
On-demand cab hailing has plateaued, indicating its limited impact on urban mobility, especially the office commute, which accounts for the bulk of city transport. A host of startups are filling the niche with shared-mobility options. But building a solid product and gaining traction is just half the battle. The big challenge: getting scale and capital.

Driving alone to work and back, through the choking Bengaluru traffic — 16km one way, which takes a gruelling one-and-a-half hours — generated not just insane levels of boredom for Sriram Krishnan, but also a strong feeling of guilt. The multinational-company employee does not have any mode of public transport that directly connects his residential area in JP Nagar and office location in Yemlur. Uber and Ola are too expensive. Krishnan was