Electric vehicle infrastructure company RACEnergy has announced that it raised a Seed+ round of $ 1.3 million.
The funding round was led by Micelio Fund and growX ventures, along with investments from Huddle, Prophetic Ventures, BITSian Angels, and other angel investment firms; the funds will be used to enhance R&D, scale the company’s swapping technology and infrastructure, and fulfil the pre-orders received in Hyderabad and surrounding Tier-II cities.
As a technology-first company focused on battery swapping, RACEnergy provides an integrated solution by taking the cost of the battery out of the vehicle and offering energy as a service through a network of swapping stations.
Drivers can swap their discharged batteries with charged ones within two minutes, enabling them to operate for longer durations. In addition, to onboard vehicles to its platform, the company provides retrofit kits that convert existing ICE auto-rickshaws into electric, making it economical and scalable.
Arun Sreyas, CEO and Co-Founder, RACEnergy, said the funds will enable the company to make more ergonomic and customised batteries, further its connected cloud system, deploy the first-of-its-kind cooling system inside a battery pack, and accelerate its production process. This will help scale up its pilot programmes to meet the growing EV demand.
Sheetal Bahl, Partner, growX ventures, said the funding will now allow RACEnergy to build a superior and differentiated swapping network in the next couple of years.
“RACE has developed one of the most advanced, sophisticated technology to enable swapping of batteries for electric vehicles. Our team at Micelio are impressed by the founders’ vision, knowledge, and execution capabilities,” said Shreyas Shibulal, Founder & Director, Micelio Fund.
Early last year, RACEnergy raised $ 500K during a seed round from growX ventures, early-stage investor Prophetic Ventures and other angels as part of Huddle, India’s first EV accelerator. The company successfully showcased its first prototype in 2019; it aims to set up India’s largest network of battery swapping infrastructure across various cities, starting with Hyderabad.