EV startup Yulu raises $82 Mn in Series B round

Electric mobility startup Yulu has secured $82 million in equity funding led by US-based Magna International in a Series B funding round with participation from existing investors including Bajaj Auto Limited. This is the first funding round for the Bengaluru-based company in 2022.

Yulu will scale its mobility & battery swapping businesses and increase its EV fleet to more than 1 lakh two-wheelers along with over 500 battery charging and swapping stations in the next 12 months, the firm said in a press statement.

The company will also form a new entity with Magna to create a battery swapping (Battery-as-a-Service) platform with an interoperable system to accelerate the electrification of mobility.

Yulu offers last-mile connectivity through its electric bike and network of EV charging and battery swapping network. The company provides urban Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR and claims to have completed more than 3.5 million battery swaps to date.

Yulu has a strategic partnership with India’s two-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto and over the years the two companies have been collaborating on product design, technology platforms, engineering processes and manufacturing.

As per Yulu, its next generation of electric two-wheelers will roll out of Bajaj’s Pune facility by the year-end. Its chief executive Amit Gupta anticipates a 100X scale in both the BaaS and MaaS businesses in the next three-four years.

While Yulu is yet to file its annual financial statements for FY22, the company’s revenue from operations jumped 54% to Rs 13.7 crore in FY21, according to its regulatory filings with the RoC. The company’s losses also surged more than 220% to Rs 61 crore during the fiscal year ending March 2021.

So far, Yulu has scooped up around $110 million in funding. In December, the company raised a $7 million debt round. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development.

As per Fintrackr’s data, around 40 EV startups have collectively raised over $630 million in 2022 so far. Ola Electric and Ather Energy are the largest fundraisers on the list followed by Yulu.