Battery swapping start-up Battery Smart on Tuesday announced that it raised a pre-series A round of $7 million. The funds will be utilised to strengthen its Battery Assignment Technology, scale its operations to service 10,000 electric vehicles (EVs) daily, and expand to three new states by FY22.
The funding round was led by Blume Ventures and Orios Ventures, along with investments from Green Frontier Capital, Baring Private Equity India, and notable angels 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, the company said in a press release.
TradeCred, India’s leading alternative debt platform, also participated as a debt partner with an INR 24 crore investment.
Battery Smart’s battery-as-a-service model enables interoperable battery swapping for EVs in under two minutes and reduces the up-front investment borne by a consumer by up to 60%.
With over 100 swap stations operational in the Delhi NCR region, the company has completed about three lakh battery swaps and powered ten million emission-free kms to date.
Arpit Agarwal, Director, Blume Ventures, said, “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 1,000 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.”
Pulkit Khurana, Co-Founder, Battery Smart, said, “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.”
Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Ventures, added, “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,” he added.
The data-driven methodology and superior battery telematics have enabled the company to grow exponentially. The IoT-enabled batteries on its network and the data generated are being utilised for effective network planning and ensuring EV users have access to two-minute swaps within one km radius with zero wait time.
The company currently has 1,200 active vehicles on its platform and completes 5,000 swaps daily.