One of the biggest challenges for any vehicle owner in India is finding a reliable service and maintenance outlet, given the nature of this largely unorganised market.
But, Hyderabad-based Beyond Garage wants to assure its customers of superior service at a competitive price.
A tech startup focused on vehicle service, repair, and maintenance, Beyond Garage was founded in October 2020 by Mahmud Kotebagil with a simple motto: Maximise the repair and minimise the replacement.
It is a common phenomenon among vehicle owners that a trip to a service outlet would mean the replacement of parts rather than servicing a vehicle, which naturally adds up to the cost.
“At Beyond Garage, we leverage technology to understand the requirements of the customer through a detailed diagnostic of the vehicle and the focus is to always bring down the overall cost,” Mahmud tells YourStory.
The igniting factor
Mahmud’s journey into the entrepreneurial world began in 2017 when he was an engineer working with Siemens. He realised there were several shortcomings in the vehicle service and repair market.
Initially, he founded a vehicle service startup but merged it with two other companies working in automobile parts supply and automotive technology to form Beyond Garage.
According to the founder, the startup’s key strength lies in the quality of professionals it has hired and its technology platform. Beyond Garage has also partnered with vehicle workshops and independent technicians, who are trained and certified by the startup.
On the technology aspect, any customer who wants to get certain bodywork done will have to send images of their vehicle, based on which the startup sends an estimated cost. In the case of mechanical work, the customer has the option of getting the service done either at their location or at the workshop.
Mahmud says, “Once the cost estimate is generated, we do not change the amount after the final work is done. This was one of the biggest problem we identified where customers end up paying up more in the end.”
The cost estimate is done by the technical professional and is also vetted by an internal team. Beyond Garage also provides a warranty that can extend from thirty days to five years.
Portfolio of services
Today, Beyond Garage services both two- and four-wheelers, supplies spare parts, and provides maintenance services to fleet transport companies. It is also looking at the electric vehicle segment.
Mahmud says the cost of Beyond Garage services is much lower than an authorised service centre, and adds that each and every case comes with a warranty.
As Beyond Garage always seeks to replace the parts only when absolutely necessary, it brings down the repair or service cost of the vehicle. Typically, for any vehicle repair outlet, there is a higher profit margin when they sell the parts or components.
Its technology platform, developed in-house, enables it to provide prompt service and the startup claims it can reach the customer’s location within 45 minutes. Besides, it is also developing a platform where the cost estimate can be done through images that are generated.
“We can control end-to-end journey of the customer because we also have the spare part segment within and there is no question of unnecessary replacement,” says Mahmud.
Beyond Garage operates in Hyderabad and Bengaluru with partnerships of around 200 workshops. Besides, it has around 50 independent technicians engaged with them.
Beyond Garage’s partner automobile workshop
A win-win situation
Beyond Garage officially launched this January, and claims to service around 250-300 vehicles per day with 60 percent of them being two-wheelers and the rest four-wheelers.
Mahmud feels that the market is large enough in the country for everybody to exist — saying that data suggests four million vehicles get serviced every day in the country.
“Competition is not really the issue as we need to solve for the customer in a faster and transparent manner,” says Mahmud.
Beyond Garage is a bootstrapped venture where the promoters have brought in their own funds. Going forward, it is looking to be present in two more cities — Pune and Mumbai — by the end of this year and expand further in 2022.
Mahmud believes Beyond Garage’s business model creates a win-win situation for everybody. On one side, customers are happy with the service quality while various partners like garages or technicians are able to generate higher source of income.
As Beyond Garage looks to expand its horizon in the future, the founder is very clear that the startup is not just a platform where it brings the vehicles owners and the workshops together.
“We do not consider ourselves as an aggregator. Our mission is to be part of the end-to-end customer journey,” says Mahmud.
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