Commercial electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Altigreen Propulsion Labs Pvt Ltd has raised around Rs 300 crore (approximately $40 million) in its Series A funding round led by led by Sixth Sense Ventures, along with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries unit and other equity investors.
The funding, participated by Reliance New Energy (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited), Xponentia Capital, Accurant International, USA and Momentum Venture Capital, Singapore, is to boost its EV manufacturing, launch new products including LCVs and strengthen its countrywide presence, the company said in a statement.
A day prior, Reliance Industries Ltd had announced an investment of Rs 50.16 crore in the eight-year old Bengaluru-based EV manufacturer.
"Reliance New Energy Ltd (RNEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has entered into an agreement with Altigreen for the subscription of 34,000 Series-A Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares of face value Rs 100 each for an aggregate consideration of Rs 50.16 crore," Reliance Industries Ltd had said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday.
The fresh funds will be used to ramp up production capabilities, accelerate research and development, fast-paced EV adoption and develop a pan-India network, the statement added.
Nikhil Vora, Founder and CEO of Sixth Sense said, “We draw comfort with Altigreen’s primary focus on the 3W segment within the EV space – which fundamentally is less cluttered and under-penetrated, as well as benefits multiple stakeholders in the value chain (from Ecommerce players to consumers). This coupled with a strong product first approach and a credible team, Altigreen is well-positioned to emerge as one of the leading players in the 3W EV space.”
“We believe that Altigreen has a big role to play in accelerating the adoption of EVs which is entering a non-linear growth phase in Indian markets,” said PR Srinivasan, Managing Partner, Xponentia Capital.
Incorporated in India on February 8, 2013, Altigreen’s turnover in the fiscal year 2019, FY20 and FY21 stood at Rs 193.53 lakh, Rs 61.62 lakh and Rs 103.82 lakh, respectively.
Altigreen was founded by Amitabh Saran, Lasse Mocklegaard, Shailendra Gupta and John Bangura in 2012. Earlier, it has raised capital from Jupiter Capital, Sterling Tools, Phi Capital and HiTech Gears among others.
“The future of India’s automobile industry is electric and we have already laid out a roadmap to achieve fast-EV adoption, mainly in the commercial segment. The deeper ecommerce penetration and growth in last-mile delivery have catapulted the demand for commercial, road-ready EVs and this year will be a transformative year for us,” Dr Amitabh Saran and Shalendra Gupta, Co-founders of Altigreen said in a joint statement.
On December 23, Altigreen announced it was delivering over 15,000 road-ready electric vehicles to MoEVing which provides solutions to e-commerce, e-grocery, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), logistics and direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies to optimise their logistics costs and reduce carbon emissions.
Altigreen had bagged the order worth Rs 75 crore and is ramping up its manufacturing capabilities to begin deliveries from Q1 of FY23.
The company has expanded its network across New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.
Electric mobility space has received continued interest from investors and conglomerates thus forming a partnership with startups to extend EV charging stations.
Boutique investment banking firm Four- S Services Pvt Ltd was the lead advisor for the transaction.
On January 26, the joint venture of RIL and energy major BP opened one of the country's largest EV charging hubs in Delhi, as the duo scaled up the fuel retail network, offering multiple fuel choices including EV charging infrastructure.
Reliance BP Mobility Ltd (RBML) JV had also tied up with Gurugram-based BluSmart to set up electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
