The Busy Brains
6 Sept 2023
Bengaluru-based electric vehicle (EV) startup, Ather Energy, has secured INR 550 crores in funding from its existing investor, Hero MotoCorp. The investment will be made through Ather's Series E2 compulsory convertible preference shares as part of a rights issue.
Hero MotoCorp, which initially invested in Ather Energy in 2016, currently holds a 33.1% stake in the EV startup. Following this rights issue, Hero MotoCorp's shareholding in Ather is expected to increase even further. The transaction is slated to conclude by September 30.
This funding round arrives nearly 11 months after Ather secured $50 million in investment from Caladium Investment. Prior to that, in May of the previous year, the company raised $128 million from NIIFL and Hero MotoCorp as part of its Series E funding round. To date, Ather Energy has accumulated a total funding of over $400 million.
Established in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy has emerged as a significant player in India's two-wheeler EV market. It currently offers two electric scooters, namely the Ather 450X and Ather 450S.
Ather also boasts of having the country's most extensive fast-charging network, featuring over 1,400 charging points across more than 99 cities, including Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Jaipur.
Registrations for Ather's electric scooters totaled 6,780 units in August, representing a slight 1.6% increase from the 6,671 units recorded in July. In comparison, its rival, Ola Electric, experienced a 10.4% decline in registrations in August, amounting to 17,331 units. Nevertheless, Ola Electric continued to lead the two-wheeler EV segment.
Beyond its competition with Ola Electric, Ather faces rivals like Ampere, Okinawa, Revolt, and TVS in the Indian EV market.
Hero MotoCorp's filing revealed that Ather Energy generated INR 1,806 crores in revenue in FY23, marking a substantial rise from the INR 408.5 crores reported in FY22. While the filing did not disclose profit/loss figures for FY23, Ather Energy reported a 47% increase in net losses, amounting to INR 344 crores, for FY22.