TVS Motor and Zoho invest in Ultraviolette at $205 Mn valuation

Electric bike startup Ultraviolette has raised around $15 million in a new round from TVS Motor Company and Zoho Corporation. This is the part of Series C round for the company which last raised Rs 50 crore or $6.5 million from TVS and GoFurugal in October last year.

The new round comes amidst back to back funding rounds in startups in the electric vehicles space. On Wednesday, Ola Electric had picked up $53 million led by Temasek. Euler Motors also closed a $10 million equity round whereas Ather Energy raised around $17 million in debt from its longtime backer Hero MotoCorp. 

Ultraviolette has approved the allotment of 5909 Series B preference shares at an issue price of Rs 190,384 per share to raise Rs 112.5 crore or $15 million, regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

TVS Motor Company Limited has invested Rs 75 crore whereas Zoho Corporation Private Limited pumped in Rs 37.50 crore in this round. According to Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has raised fresh funds at a post-money valuation of $205 million.

Following the fresh allotment of shares, TVS Motor stood out as the largest stakeholder with 33.95% whereas Zoho has acquired 2.46% stake. Its existing backer GoFrugal owns 13.93% stake in the Bengaluru-based company. 

It’s worth mentioning that GoFrugal is led by Kumar Vembu, brother of Zoho’s founder Sridhar Vembu. Ultraviolette co-founders -- Subramaniam Narayan and Niraj Rajmohan -- have 18.96% and 16.20% stake respectively. 

Ultraviolette has been developing its flagship F77 motorcycle which has three variants Airstrike, Laser and Shadow. A yet to be launched bike claims to enable 130-150 kilometres at one go with a set of its three batteries.

Founded in 2015, Ultraviolette was a pre-revenue stage firm as it’s yet to launch its motorcycles in the market. While the company had zero operating revenue in FY21, its expenses decreased by 37% to Rs 2.37 crore during the fiscal year ending March 2021.