Ather Energy, the Sachin and Binny Bansal-backed, Bangalore based start-up which is currently working on a two-wheeler vehicle running on electric energy, has raised $12 million in latest funding from Tiger Global.
The company is planning to utilize newly raised funds for product development, testing, production and launch of its first vehicle – Ather S340.
Tarun Mehta, CEO and co-founder of Ather Energy, said,
Ather Energy aims to build smart, connected electric vehicles of the future. We want to offer the Indian consumer a completely new driving experience by developing a product that would be at par with any petrol or electric two-wheelers available in the market today.
Lee Fixel from Tiger Global, said,
We are impressed with Ather’s vision of building smart electric vehicles that has a potential to revolutionise the driving experience. We see great potential in Ather’s product offering and the technology and are confident that their maiden launch will attract tremendous positive response.
Ather Energy was founded in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain with a vision to accelerate the development and adoption of smart, electric vehicles. It was incubated at IIT Madras’ Engineering Design Department in 2013 and later at the Incubation Cell at IIT Madras.
Earlier, in December 2014, the company received $1 million in seed funding round from Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, co-founders of Flipkart, one of the India’s most valuable tech start-up.
The Ather-S340 is a connected vehicle powered by lithium-Ion battery pack. It features a digital touchscreen dashboard, has a light-weight aluminium chassis and offers a top speed of up to 75 kmph. It will allow users to create personalized profiles, choose riding modes and set other ride preferences.
It is said to be the first electric scooter which has been completely designed and manufactured out of India. The startup is pegging this scooter’s launch for early 2016.
