Electric scooter manufacturing startup Ather Energy has raised Rs 84 crore from its largest backer Hero MotoCorp as an extension of its Series C round led by Sachin Bansal as it plans to expand to 20 cities by the end of next year.
The startup plans to use the freshly raised funding to carry forward its aggressive expansion phase on the back of its flagship product, Ather 450X and is further looking to scale to 20 cities by the end of 2021.
Ather Energy’s (1) latest flagship model will soon be available in cities, including Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi, with deliveries beginning in 2020.
The fueling in of funding comes in as an extension of Ather’s Series C funding round that raised $51 million in May 2019, with $32 million pumped in from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal.
Ramping up manufacturing
Tarun Mehta, co-founder & CEO at Ather Energy, while talking about the expansion plans, stated,
“Our geographic expansion and the roll-out schedule for the Ather 450X are on track, and we will be using these funds to invest in our facilities to meet the demand we have seen for the Ather 450X across the country.”
Ather will also be setting up its manufacturing plant in Hosur, which will allow the startup to ramp up their manufacturing to 100k units annually, which can further be expanded to 500k units as and when the demand scales.
The startup will also be setting up Ather Grid fast charging ports for electric vehicle owners across the country for the coming five years.
The Indian EV market, like the rest of the automobile sector, has taken a huge dip due to the pandemic in our country. However, the EVs sales are expected to rebound faster than traditional automobiles, according to reports by Avendus Capital.
Link : https://timesnext.com/hero-motocorp-invests-electric-ather-energy/
Author :- Saumya Uniyal
July 24, 2020 at 03:50PM
TimesNext