Exclusive: EV Infra Provider Bolt.Earth In Talks To Raise $20 Mn, Eyes $100 Mn Valuation

Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure provider Bolt.Earth is in talks with investors to raise $20 Mn in its Series B round at a valuation of $100 Mn, sources told Inc42. 

The funding round will be led by an EV-focussed venture capital fund and will also see participation from the startup’s existing investor Prime Venture Partners, the sources said. The talks are in final stages and the round would value the startup at about 4X its last valuation, they added. 

“The fundraise is likely to close in a week or so,” one of the sources said. Another source said some of the angel investors exited the startup via a secondary sale share earlier this year, making handsome returns on their investments. 

A Bolt.Earth spokesperson declined to comment on the queries sent by Inc42 on the fundraise. 

Bolt.Earth, earlier known as REVOS, last raised $4 Mn from Union Square Ventures and Prime Venture Partners in 2021 at an undisclosed valuation.

Bolt.Earth Races Past Its Rivals

Besides providing EV charging infrastructure, Bolt.Earth, founded in 2017 by Jyotiranjan Harichandan and Mohit Yadav, also offers an operating system (OS) which, the startup claims, helps EV run smoothly and provides a seamless experience. The OS offers features like real-time updates, remote monitoring, and software support.

The startup, which competes with the likes of Tata Power, Ather Energy, and ChargePoint, seems to have marched ahead of its rivals in terms of setting up an EV charging network.

In a release last month, Bolt.Earth said its customers include businesses, real estate operators, individuals and government entities, among others. The startup claims to have installed over 30,000 charging points across more than 1,000 cities in India, while its OS is installed in more than 20,000 EVs in the country.

“Our network has dispensed more than 1,000MWh of energy, and equipped more than 50,000  users with smart, safe, and simple engineered devices that cater to EV charging needs. We currently partner with eight 8 of India’s top 10 two-wheeler EV OEMs,” the release said. 

Bolt.Earth partners with OEMs and EV dealers, who offer bundled services with the startup’s charging solutions.

The startup also has partnerships with public sector companies like Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Delhi Metro Corporation, Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation, and Indian Oil Corporation, private companies like Cyient and LTI Mindtree, and real estate developers like Prestige, Sobha, and Divyasree. 

These partnerships seem to have played a major role in making the startup the “largest electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure solution provider” in the country. 

India’s EV Boom

The development comes at a time when EV adoption in the country is on the rise due to rising awareness about tackling climate change and the government’s efforts to promote EVs to reduce reliance on fuel imports.

The Centre has launched schemes like FAME-II to promote EVs and production-linked incentive schemes to boost domestic manufacturing of EVs, EV components and batteries. Besides, various state governments have also launched EV policies to increase the share of EVs in total vehicles.

Consequently, the number of EV makers and their products have increased dramatically over the last few years, with EV registrations in India surging 700% since 2020. This has resulted in the development of an entire EV ecosystem, including charging infrastructure providers, battery tech startups and aggregators, in the country.

The rise of the EV ecosystem has also attracted investors and the sector has emerged as a hot favourite for PE and VC firms and others. Earlier this month, IPO-bound Ola Electric signed an agreement to raise $140 Mn in a funding round led by Temasek. Ola’s rival Ather Energy also raised INR 900 Cr from existing investors Hero MotoCorp and GIC.

Among other major funding rounds in the EV ecosystem, mobility service provider BluSmart raised $37 Mn in May this year and charging infrastructure provider Charge Zone raised $54 Mn. 

Even as the sector is flush with funds right now and competition is intensifying, with a number of automakers as well as startups building EV capabilities, the EV ecosystem would require huge investments over the coming years. India is currently home to 3 Mn EVs and the sales of EVs are projected to increase to 10 Mn by 2030. This would not only require EV manufacturers to make investments but also huge amounts of capital would have to be deployed to proportionally increase the EV charging infrastructure.

As per a report by government think tank NITI Aayog, an investment worth $267 Bn will be required in EVs, battery infrastructure, and charging infrastructure to make a full transition to EVs.