Battery Smart, one of the leading battery-swapping services, has announced that it has raised a pre-series A round of USD 7 million. This round of funding was spearheaded by Blume Ventures and Orios Ventures but the company has even bagged investments from Green Frontier Capital, Baring Pvt Equity India and angle investors like Srinivas Anumolu (Founder - Elance, TutorVista, Bigbasket, Bluestone), K Ganesh (Serial Entrepreneur & Partner - GrowthStory.in), Niraj Singh, (Founder & CEO - Spinny), and Amit Bhasin (Co-Founder - GoMechanic). Moreover, even TradeCred, one of the emerging alternative debt platforms, has participated as a debt partner with an investment of INR 24 crore.
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The battery-as-a-service model from Battery Smart helps the user by enabling them to swap batteries for electric vehicles in less than 2 minutes and even reduce the initial investment by up to 60 per cent. With over 100 Swap Stations operational in the Delhi NCR region, the company has completed 3 lakh battery swaps and powered 10 million emission-free kms to date. The funds will be utilised to strengthen its Battery Assignment Technology, scale its operations to service 10,000 electric vehicles daily, and expand to three new states by FY22.
Given the excellent product-market fit for Battery Smart in the e-Rickshaw and fleet segment, we believe that the right player to win the market will be the one who is able to expand the fastest. After the COVID second wave, Battery Smart has grown more than 10x and continues to grow at a very rapid pace to currently service more than 1000 electric two and three-wheelers daily. We are excited to be a partner in the journey of Pulkit and Siddharth as they make adoption of electric mobility even more simple, economic, and accessible, said Arpit Agarwal, Director, Blume Ventures.
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Battery swapping addresses major deterrents to EV adoption like range anxiety, high up-front costs, and long downtimes. The funds raised will help us expand our presence pan-India, strengthen our technology, and make key hires, said Pulkit Khurana, Co-Founder of Battery Smart.
The Battery Smart team has demonstrated that they can create not only a capital-efficient, profitable business model but also deliver large scale ESG impact in the country. This is a rare achievement that very few businesses can claim at this time, said Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Ventures, when speaking on the announcement. Their asset-light tech-enabled business model has brought down costs and increased supply in public-shared mobility for low-income consumers and, for companies using last-mile EV-based logistics. They have directly impacted an increase in incomes for bottom-of-the-pyramid 3-wheeler and 2-wheeler drivers and local small businesses. With rising fossil-fuel prices and global focus on net-zero emissions, their model helps in delivering our commitment to climate change with the lowest net-new resources added.
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With over 2 lac EVs in just the NCR region, there is no better time to invest in Indias electric mobility revolution. We are impressed by Battery Smarts ability to grow 100% every month, and we are keen to be a part of its fast-moving journey, said Hardik Shah, Founder and CEO, TradeCred.
Battery Smart offers IoT-enabled batteries and the data generated by the app is used for effective network planning and ensuring EV users have access to two-minute swaps within a 1 km radius with ultra-low wait time. At the moment, the company has more than 1200 active subscribers of his network and provides 5000 swaps on a daily basis.
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