India’s electric vehicle market is set to be worth nearly $114 billion in 2029 with a CAGR of 66.5%, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. The exponential growth in the EV space comes on the back of the government focus on sustainable mobility, increased VC capital infusion in the industry, and consumers’ wide embrace.
Surat-based Evify is one of the relatively new startups that is looking to stand out with its strategy to focus on logistics in non-metro cities. Founded in 2021, Evify has essentially set up a facility where riders can come to their hub, pick up an EV to start deliveries, and return the vehicle at the end of the day. The company takes care of the maintenance of the vehicles. The startup currently operates in Surat and Ahmedabad, and has facilitated 11 lakh deliveries in the last one year.
We spoke to the company co-founder and CEO Devrishi Arora to learn more about Evify, the idea behind the logistics EV startup, business model, and more. Here are the edited excerpts.
What do you think are the key challenges in the emobility space?
Since we come from a non-metro city, where the EV eco system is still at the nascent stage, there is no infrastructure available for the smooth functioning of the vehicles. There’s a scarcity of charging stations, inconveniencing EV users. Secondly, delivery riders lack awareness of EV benefits and savings. Thirdly, high initial EV costs, compounded by elevated RTO charges in states like Gujarat, and a scarcity of repair stations inflate expenses.
Fourthly, concerns about EV range and charging infrastructure persist, particularly in Tier II cities with longer distances. Fifthly, limited availability of EVs and components, coupled with inadequate after-sales service, hampers adoption. Lastly, overcoming perceptions of EVs as less reliable requires client confidence, which we foster through pilot projects.
How are you using technology to solve these challenges?
We have also installed all the vehicles with telematics devices which helps us to geofence the vehicles, remote immobilization, study the rider driving pattern as well as idle time pattern of the riders. This has helped us to have control on our fleet as well as the riders. We have also been creating a full stack tech platform which will help us to study the rider analytics, battery analytics, BMS , IOT data, clients data, vendor data, ancillary industry data, repairs and maintenance, charging stations, etc under one single platform.
How has your startup performed since inception?
We started in September 2021 with just 30 vehicles and one client in Surat ie. Big Basket. Today, we have close to 500 vehicles servicing six major clients Zomato, Swiggy, Big Basket, Bluedart, Ecom Express, Flipkart in Surat and Ahmedabad. We are also launching our operations in Vadodara soon in the coming months.
We have so far raised $1.3 million from GVFl and Piper Serica as the VC investors. The target is to have a fleet of 10,000 vehicles in the coming 2 years spread across 10 cities of Bharat.
What are your short-term and long term goals?
Our goals for the upcoming year involve expanding our presence in the four major cities of Gujarat and achieving a fleet size of 5,000 vehicles by the end of the next financial year. Additionally, we aim to establish the necessary EV ecosystem in these cities through collaborations with other EV players, fostering synergies, and raising awareness about this segment in Tier II cities.
Looking ahead, our broader vision is to evolve into a green logistics service provider. This encompasses implementing green warehousing practices and facilitating first-mile, mid-mile, and last-mile deliveries using electric vehicles. Furthermore, we intend to partner with drop delivery services to offer comprehensive mid-mile delivery solutions to our clients.
