<aside> context: sarthi started from a simple observation, in small towns and tier-2 cities, bus travel is still mostly analog. long lines. handwritten receipts. no digital seat maps. no visibility.
i imagined: what if booking a seat on your local bus felt as smooth as ordering a chai online? that’s where sarthi began, not as a startup idea, but as a product concept designed for people like my uncle, my neighbor, or the driver at our nearest depot.
</aside>
sarthi didn’t start as a business idea — it started as a pattern i couldn’t ignore.
every time i passed a local bus stop, i saw the same scene:
paper tickets. phone calls. people waiting without knowing if they’d get a seat.
so i went deeper.
i observed daily operations at a regional depot, spoke with 10+ commuters, 5+ operators, and asked a simple question:
what would make this easier for you?
answers were honest and clear:
→ “i just want to know if i’ll get a seat.”
→ “i don’t need an app. i just need confirmation.”
→ “if it works on whatsapp, i’ll use it.”
and while the ground-level need was clear, the market data backed it too:
the online intercity bus market is growing fast.
in FY23, it hit a gross booking value of $1.2 billion, a 2.5x jump from FY22.
by FY26, online bookings are expected to make up 26% of the entire market.
a huge shift — and it’s still mostly urban.
tier-2 and tier-3 cities are next. sarthi was built with that in mind.
competitor audit summary (based on user interviews)