Cityflo: Redefining urban commutes with precision tech, data & customer excellence
Ankit Agrawal, Co-founder and CTO of Cityflo, reflects on a journey that began not in a corporate boardroom but in the hostel corridors of IIT Bombay. What started as a dorm-room idea among four friends in 2015 has now evolved into one of India’s most reliable tech-enabled commute solutions—offering over 30,000 daily bookings across Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad with a lean fleet of 500+ BharatBenz buses.
“We wanted to build a solution that’s not just another bus service. It had to be reliable like a train, comfortable like a car, and as tech-enabled as possible,” says Agrawal.
Cityflo has spent the last decade solving one of India’s most painful urban challenges: the daily office commute. In metros like Mumbai, commuting is often long, inconsistent, and exhausting. Public buses are overcrowded, ride-hailing apps are expensive for daily use, and personal vehicles create environmental and logistical chaos. Cityflo fills that gap with a subscription-based, fixed-seat bus service engineered around convenience, safety, and predictability.
Customer feedback: The North Star of product innovation
What truly differentiates Cityflo is its unwavering attention to on-ground customer behaviour and feedback. While analytics and data drive operational decisions, the team frequently steps into the field—interacting with commuters at bus stops and even riding alongside them.
That human connection led to the creation of Flexi Passes—a game changer for hybrid workforces. Until late 2024, Cityflo’s monthly passes locked users into five-day bookings. But interviews with commuters revealed that many followed a Monday-Wednesday-Friday travel rhythm, canceling rides on off days. Listening to these nuanced behaviours helped the team craft a flexible subscription model aligned to hybrid routines.
Similarly, frequent travelers—like sales professionals hopping across locations—sparked the design of multi-route travel products. This agile feedback loop between users and product teams ensures relevance, utility, and loyalty.
Data-driven focus: From route planning to real-time decisions
At the core of Cityflo’s operation is a robust data and automation backbone. The entire tech ecosystem—spanning customer apps, driver interfaces, operational dashboards, and CRMs—is built and maintained by a 13-member lean tech and design team.
“Every decision we make is backed by data,” says Agrawal. He explains, “From launching a new route to adding features like downloadable invoices or our 360-degree stop locator—everything stems from usage trends, support queries, and customer feedback.”
Three pillars of Cityflo’s data strategy:
Demand mapping: User sign-ups, app usage, and search behaviours identify emerging demand corridors and underserved routes.
Operational monitoring: An internal “control tower” monitors fleet performance in real-time, tracking punctuality, cancellations, and delays to ensure minimal disruption.
Predictive analytics: Features like the “Notify Me” button on full buses offer predictive insights. If a time slot sees high user interest but limited availability, Cityflo knows exactly when and where to deploy additional buses.
AI-led automation that scales operations
Cityflo’s backend isn’t just smart—it’s intelligent, thanks to the strategic use of AI and automation across customer support, logistics, and hiring.
AI-based call audits: Calls to customer support are evaluated using AI-generated feedback, saving time and maintaining consistent quality.
Ticket resolution with AI suggestions: The ticketing system is now AI-assisted, providing ready-to-use responses that agents can send with minimal edits—reducing turnaround time dramatically.
Driver sourcing automation: Once a manual process riddled with inefficiencies, driver recruitment is now automated through AI bots that screen eligibility based on license type, geography, and availability. “What used to take days, now takes minutes,” points out Agrawal.
Designing for safety, simplicity, and inclusivity
With 40% of bookings from women, Cityflo stands out in a domain where the female white-collar commuter share typically hovers between 15–20%.
“That number reassures us. It signals that we’ve created a service that is not just convenient but also trusted and safe,” Agrawal.
UX plays a major role in this success. From students to seniors, the platform caters to a wide tech-savvy spectrum. “Our app is intuitive, easy to navigate—even for first-time smartphone users,” Agrawal adds. The team’s in-house design expertise ensures that features like real-time bus tracking and street-view-based stop locators are accessible to all.
A lean team with a sharp focus
Running a daily commute solution for tens of thousands with a 13-member tech and product design team might sound implausible. But Cityflo thrives on sharp prioritisation and focused execution.
“There’s no bandwidth for ‘nice-to-haves.’ We work on what matters most to the customer,” Agrawal asserts.
While technical proficiency remains a hiring cornerstone, the team also evaluates candidates for problem-solving ability, growth mindset, business sense, and customer empathy.
The commute, reimagined
Cityflo’s journey is a masterclass in human-centered innovation. With deep customer listening, lean product thinking, and intelligent automation, the startup has turned a fragmented daily struggle into a seamless experience for thousands.
As India’s cities expand and work patterns evolve, Cityflo’s mission is clear: to reshape urban mobility with empathy, intelligence, and engineering precision. And it’s doing just that—one reliable bus ride at a time.
