The new age EV brand, BLive, intends to set up a network of 50 multi-brand EV experience stores across India by the end of CY22.
Beginning in November 2021 with the project, the company currently has three showrooms, including two in Hyderabad and one in Hubli.
Speaking to Mobility Outlook, Samarth Kholkar, Co-founder, BLive, revealed that by April end, the company intends to set up its multi-brand showrooms in Goa, Nashik, Pune, Gulbarga, Lingampalli and Cochin.
Besides, the company plans to expand its network of experience centres to the north and the north-eastern side, including Banaras, Jamshedpur among others, by the end of the year, he confirmed.
“We are initially targeting Tier-II/III cities as the kind of products we retail are best suited to that kind of market because of the shorter distance and less traffic congestion,” Kholkar added.
Besides, through its online portal, the company caters to 2000 pin codes across India, he claimed. The platform was started a year and a half ago. Through this, it retails e-scooters and e-cycles from multiple brands, namely Hero Electric, GoZero, and Ampere.
The company has partnered with Volt, Kazam, Eletectricpe, Log9 Materials, and others in terms of charging infrastructure.
As the company has a client base consisting of hospital chains and real estate customers also, through these partnerships, it aims to provide charging solutions to its customers.
Investments
The co-founder claims to have invested close to $1.5 million into the company to date. Going forward, he confirmed that the company is planning to raise another $6 million in a Series A funding round during CY22.
These funds will be utilised into building a bigger core team as the start-up plans to expand its operations across India, Kholkar confirmed.
Additionally, these funds will also be used to enhance the company’s technical capabilities, he added.
The company plans to add virtual reality capabilities to its website to make the online store a replica of its experience centres, he said.
Moreover, it also plans to add interactive digital displays at its offline experience stores to ensure better user interaction.
Future Plans
The company started its journey in 2018 to increase awareness about EVs among Indians. But instead of going the usual way, it chose a different path. It began by signing a contract for 20 years with Goa tourism to be their tourism partner. For this, the company partnered with a few of the hotels, including Club Mahindra, IHCL Seleqtions, IHCL Taj Resorts, Radisson hotel group, The Leela Palaces, Novotel, Holiday Inn, Postcard Resorts and Marriots Groups.
At present it operates in Goa, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Karnataka, Coorg, TamilNadu, Coonoor, Ooty, Madhya Pradesh and Kanha with the tourism verticle.
The reason behind choosing the tourism business was that the co-founder believes that the threshold level on trying new things is the lowest for a person when on vacation.
The company partnered with e2W makers, including Hero Electric, Lightspeed and others who would provide customised products. These customisations were done to make the products adaptable to the needs of multiple users.
Furthermore, for the mass adoption of EVs, the company also partnered with Manappuram finance, OTO capital, and others to finance the vehicles for personal use customers.
The co-founder believes that as EV awareness grows, so will the growth of its multi-brand platform and experience centre. He considers EVs as more of a mobility solution than a mode of transportation. “When a category is growing, especially a high-intensity technology category, like the EVs, all these channels become multiple revenue channels for all the brands involved,” he concluded.