A Qatar-based conglomerate with a diverse portfolio across several industry verticals, including renewable energy, construction, oil and gas and manufacturing, has backed a homegrown electric two-wheeler startup with $50 million (around Rs 410 crore) investment, marking its first bet in a private company.
Kabira Mobility and the Al-Abdulla Group, as announced last month, will use Rs 300 crore to set up a manufacturing facility in Uttar Pradesh’s Jewar to cater to the North India market. The corpus will be used to scale its manufacturing capacity at its Dharwad plant in Karnataka.
"India holds immense potential and is poised to become the manufacturing hub for the global E2W market. Our investment in Kabira Mobility is aligned with Al-Abdulla group's vision of investing in the renewable energy sector and supporting sustainable mobility solutions on a global scale,” said Manoj George, chief executive officer of Al-Abdulla Group.
Al-Abdulla Group operates in about 55 verticals across the Middle East, Latin America and North Africa. The group has been investing in renewable projects for the last 12 years.
The group’s investment in Kabira Mobility underlines the group’s rising interest towards the EV segment.
Kabira Mobility currently retails two electric bikes, KM3000 and KM4000 via its 30-store network. The Karnataka-based company plans to ramp up its store network from 30 to 100 by the end of the year. It also plans to launch its flagship product KM5000, which is an electric cruiser bike KM5000 with a self-claimed range of 330 km.
“Our relentless focus on research and development for the past five years on powertrain and technology development has paved the way for Kabira Mobility and will enable us to capture almost 30% of the electric bike segment and emerge as an industry leader in the next two years,” said Jaibir Siwach, CEO of Kabira Mobility.
In the past few years, India’s electric vehicle segment is witnessing a surge in venture capital and private equity investments. For instance, last month, its rival Simple Energy secured over $20 million in a bridge round from a mix of new and existing investors.
The last month also saw electric vehicle-driven hyperlocal delivery platform Zypp Electric raising $25 million in its Series B round led by Taiwanese EV battery swapping company Gogoro as well as online travel aggregator Ixigo putting in Rs 26 crore (around $3.1 million) in Bengaluru-based electric bus startup FreshBus.