Ather Energy picks up $51 Mn in fresh round led by Sachin Bansal

Electric vehicles are the need of the hour and Ather Energy figured that out in 2013. It was one of the first Indian startups to make a crack at the EV manufacturing play and had launched its first electric scooter and fast charging stations within last year itself.

Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal have backed this startup since its initial angel rounds where they had invested $0.5 million in the firm. Other big shots like Hero MotoCorp and Tiger Global had also backed the startup in later rounds.

Now when the electric vehicle industry is at its peak and one of the most lucrative space for investors, Sachin Bansal has invested in the startup again. This time with much more fervour.

Ather Energy has secured $51 million in what looks like its Series D round and this investment has been led by Sachin Bansal with a $32 million cheque.

This isn’t the first time Bansal has invested in an electric mobility play these days. Ola has already received $21 million of its $100 million investment commitment by the Bansal and this is important because EV space is one of the most important operational space for the Bhavish Aggarwal led company right now. Today only they onboarded Ex Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin on the Ola Electric entity’s board.

Apart from that, Sachin Bansal has also invested in Bounce and Vogo - two scooter sharing applications that could go on to essentially benefit from his increasing stake in Ather Energy as it can be the new supplier for electric scooters that are shared on these platforms.

While all this points out Sachin Bansal strengthening his electric vehicle play - a space that is witnessing staggering growth due to the severely deteriorating climatic conditions. Bengaluru-based Ather Energy has its own plans with the new money as well.

It will use the investment to double down on its production capacity and increase the units manufactured to 25,000 in a year. It is also looking to expand the business into 3-4 more cities in the near future and 30 cities by the end of 2023. Chennai expansion has already been done and the preorders will start getting registered in upcoming weeks, reports ET.

If all this isn’t a proof enough that electric mobility is the future, Asin Thottumkal - an Indian actress’ husband and business tycoon Rahul Sharma, co-founder of YU Televentures and Micromax Industries had recently started an AI-powered electric two-wheeler manufacturing company Revolt Intellicorp.

This is also a direct competition to Ather Energy, which now is being even more heavily backed by deep-pocketed successful entrepreneurs like Bansal.