Zoomcar Accelerates Margin Expansion with AI 'Fraud Shield,' Cuts Fraud 38% QoQ and Prevents High-Risk Bookings at Scale
Contribution margin reaches ~ $20 per booking in January 2026, the highest in company history, based on preliminary internal estimates (unaudited and unreviewed)
BANGALORE, India, April 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:ZCAR), India's largest peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace, today announced a 38% quarter-on-quarter reduction in fraud and theft incidents, driven by its AI-powered risk engine, 'Fraud Shield,' marking a key step in the company's ongoing margin expansion.
The company reduced fraud incidents from 94 in the October–December 2025 quarter to 59 in January–March 2026, driven by the scale-up of real-time, AI-led decisioning at the booking stage. In March, approximately 1% of bookings were flagged as high-risk, with nearly 70 bookings proactively blocked prior to vehicle handover—mitigating potential fraud, theft, and associated downstream losses.
This reduction in fraud is directly contributing to improved unit economics. By lowering legal, recovery, and asset loss costs—historically among the largest cost drivers in shared mobility—Zoomcar continues to strengthen contribution margins, which reached approximately $20 per booking by January 2026 based on preliminary internal estimates (unaudited and unreviewed).
Fraud Shield is powered by Zoomcar's proprietary data and machine learning models, now enhanced with 160+ external data signals, including digital footprint intelligence, behavioral patterns, credit attributes, and synthetic identity detection. The system combines real-time risk scoring with a multi-layered profiling engine that classifies users across high and medium-risk cohorts. High-risk users—associated with theft or illegal activity—are flagged through identity-linked signals such as government IDs, devices, and behavioral patterns for enhanced verification, while machine learning models assess medium-risk users based on driving behavior, temporal patterns, and regional signals to proactively mitigate accidents and operational losses. This enables automated decision-making before a booking is confirmed.
"AI is now fundamentally reshaping our unit economics," said Vishal Ramrakhyani, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Zoomcar. "With Fraud Shield, we are making real-time decisions at the point of booking by combining proprietary data with over 160 external signals. This allows us to proactively eliminate high-risk transactions, significantly reduce losses, and drive sustained improvement in contribution margins as we scale."
Zoomcar's broader AI infrastructure processes over 100 million data points across pricing, supply, and risk, enabling the company to improve conversion, improve support efficiency, and reduce operational losses. The company views AI-led risk management as a structural lever for profitability, with continued investments planned in autonomous AI-agents and intelligence systems. As fraud detection becomes increasingly critical in digital marketplaces, Zoomcar's ability to proactively prevent high-risk behavior positions it to scale more efficiently while improving trust across its ecosystem of hosts and guests.
Financial Disclosure Advisory:
The Company reports its financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") on Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The select unaudited and unreviewed results described in this press release are preliminary estimates only based on internal financial data and are subject to revision until the Company completes its financial closing procedures and reports its full financial and business results for the fiscal year 2025–2026. These estimates are not a comprehensive statement of the Company's financial results of the fiscal year 2025–2026, and actual results may differ materially from these estimates as a result of the completion of quarterly/annual accounting procedures, the execution of the Company's internal control over financial reporting, the completion of management's financial statement preparation, the review of the Company's financial statements, and the occurrence or identification of events prior to the filing of the Company's Form 10-K for the year-end including results for the fiscal year 2025–2026.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Certain non-GAAP financial measures, including contribution profit, are presented in this press release to provide information that may assist investors in understanding the Company's financial and operating results. The Company believes these non-GAAP financial measures are important performance indicators because they exclude items that are unrelated to, and may not be indicative of, the Company's core financial and operating results. These non-GAAP financial measures, as calculated, may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies and may not be appropriate measures for comparing the performance of other companies relative to the Company. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to represent and should not be considered to be more meaningful measures than, or alternatives to, measures of operating performance as determined in accordance with GAAP. To the extent the Company utilizes such non-GAAP financial measures in the future, it expects to calculate them using a consistent method from period to period. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are not provided in this press release because the necessary GAAP information is not yet available due to the preliminary nature of the Company's financial close.
About Zoomcar
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Zoomcar is India's largest peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace. Through its digital-first platform, Zoomcar connects individual vehicle owners (Hosts) with users (Guests), offering flexible access to vehicles for self-drive carsharing. The company's mission is to promote smarter, shared mobility that is both economically empowering and environmentally sustainable.
Forward Looking Statement:
This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by terminology such as 'may,' 'should,' 'could,' 'would,' 'will,' 'expect,' 'anticipate,' 'intend,' 'plan,' 'believe,' 'estimate,' 'continue,' 'potential,' 'aim,' 'project,' and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding Zoomcar's expectations with respect to contribution profit and revenue efficiency for January 2026, the preliminary nature of such results, the timing and content of the Company's future reported financial results, and other financial and operational trends and metrics discussed herein.
These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, including, among others, factors relating to the Company's ability to finalize its quarter/fiscal year-end financial close on anticipated timelines, the accuracy of internal data on which preliminary results are based, the Company's ability to successfully execute its operational plans and initiatives, and market, economic, competitive and regulatory conditions. In addition, these forward-looking statements are subject to risks associated with the ongoing development and refinement of the Company's financial reporting processes and controls.
Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation: the risk that the Company's preliminary contribution profit and revenue efficiency results could change as a result of completing financial close procedures, audit and review processes; unexpected adjustments, restatements or changes in accounting estimates; operational, market or economic disruptions; competitive pressures; changes in demand for the Company's products and services; supply chain and cost volatility; challenges in scaling operations; regulatory and legal developments; and other risks described under 'Risk Factors' in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2025, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and in other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
You are encouraged to carefully review the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2025, and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a more comprehensive discussion of risks and uncertainties. Except as required by law, Zoomcar undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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