Vidyut Nets $10 Mn From 3one4 Capital, Others To Venture Into EV Insurance, Resale Space

Commercial electric vehicle (EV) financing startup Vidyut has raised $10 Mn (around INR 83 Cr) as a part of its Series A funding round led by 3one4 Capital. 

The round was a mix of equity and debt infusion. It also saw participation from its existing and new investors including Zephyr Peacock, Saison Capital, Force Ventures, Alteria Capital and Udaan CEO Sujeet Kumar among others. 

The startup will deploy the fresh proceeds to scale its business as a full-stack EV enabler offering services ranging from EV insurance, vehicle lifecycle management to EV resale.

“In the EV ecosystem, where the service layer has been more broken compared to the ICE vehicle market, Vidyut always aimed at creating an integrated service layer for EVs that helps customers in the overall ownership journey of the vehicles – from purchase to resale,” the company’s cofounder Xitij Kothi told Inc42.

“The first step was solving for financing to make overall EVs affordable and accessible for consumers so that the adoption increases and take the next steps to build the other elements of the overall ownership experience, which includes insurance, after-sales, servicing maintenance, and even charging and resale,” he added. 

Founded in 2021 by Kothi and Gaurav Srivastava, Vidyut so far provided EV financing for commercial EVs with two ownership plans — a hybrid financing model for vehicle loans with a battery subscription, which, it claimed, brought down the upfront EV cost by 40-50%. The other one was a traditional term loan plan.

“Over the last two years, we have set up the rails very well for the financing piece… Now. It’s time to focus on the other aspects of the ownership experience,” Kothi added. 

Along with foraying into the other verticals, Vidyut is also looking to expand its presence to 40 Indian cities in the next one year, including Varanasi, Haridwar, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur, from around 25 cities it is present in right now. The startup will also double its headcount by the end of FY25.

Speaking about investing in Vidyut, Dhairen Tohliani, VP, Alteria Capital, said that through its unique offerings, the startup addresses this whitespace by passing on the favourable total cost of ownership of an EV to users upfront. 

“After hitting an inflection point, customised financing and lifecycle management solutions will play a central role in large-scale EV adoption, requiring lenders to evaluate asset risk alongside borrower risk,” said Tohliani.

Vidyut currently offers ownership solutions to Mahindra, Piaggio, Altigreen, Murugappa Group’s Montra Electric, Euler Motors, and OSM vehicles. It is also looking to expand this OEM partnership in the coming days.

Vidyut’s model removes EV adoption barriers, especially in the large but price-sensitive driver cum owner segment, said Sonal Saldanha, VP, investments at 3one4 Capital.

In December 2022, Vidyut raised $4 Mn in a mix of equity and debt as a part of its seed funding round, co-led by Force Ventures and Veda VC. The startup claims to have doubled its disbursals quarter-on-quarter since FY22.

Without sharing the financial figures, Kothi also said that the startup’s assent under management (AUM) has almost tripled in the current fiscal year from FY23.

Vidyut competes against the likes of RevFin, Electrifi Mobility and Alt Mobility among others.

It is pertinent to note that the investors’ focus has started shifting to the other EV sub-segments as the EV manufacturing space has started becoming crowded with hundreds of players and a need for strengthening the overall ecosystem. As per data compiled by Inc42 last year, over 41% of total deals in EV space were lapped up by non-OEMs.