Commercial electric vehicle startup Turno on Thursday said it has secured Series A funding of $13.8 million (around Rs 112 crore) co-led by global venture capital firms B Capital and Quona Capital.
The round was also participated by existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Avaana Capital, with new investors Alteria Capital and InnoVen Capital.
The company plans to use the fresh funds for building proprietary battery tech technology and scaling up its operations.
Founded by former Zoomcar executives Hemanth Aluru and Sudhindra Reddy in 2022, Turno claims to offer total cost of ownership to commercial EV buyers. It provides a multi-brand selection of vehicles via its EV sales platform which is available both online and at physical stores.
The company is currently operational across Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi-NCR and Maharashtra. It claims to have captured approximately 20% share of the commercial electric vehicles market.
“Today 80-85% of India’s automotive fuel consumption is driven by commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines. Yet, there is a strong desire to transition to a green economy and so, commercial EV adoption holds significant promise. Turno was founded with the mission to convert these ‘gasoline miles’ into ‘electric miles’, having a significant positive impact on the environment,” said Aluru.
Customers who purchase EVs through Turno receive a ‘Vehicle Lifecycle Management’ app, which gamifies and incentivizes users’ driving behaviour to prolong battery life, the company said in a release.
“Commercial EV sales are heavily dependent on the availability of attractive financing options and today the Indian market is plagued by lack of truly customer centric options. Turno has identified a key missing element in the ecosystem that solves the problem of financing as well as distribution and servicing,” said Karan Mohla, general partner, B Capital and head of early-stage investments in India and SEA.
Prior to this round, Turno had secured $3.1 million in funding in its seed round from Stellaris Venture Partners and Avaana Capital, as well as angel investors including BigBasket’s Vipul Parekh, Urban Ladder's Ashish Goel, and the Goenka Family Office.
