Zypp Electric Raises $25 Mn In A Mix Of Equity & Debt To Widen Footprint, Fleet Expansion

EV-as-a-service platform Zypp Electric on Wednesday (February 8) said it has raised $25 Mn in a mix of equity and debt in its Series B funding round, led by Taiwanese battery swapping major Gogoro, to expand its geographical footprint and fleet size.

Several new and existing investors of Zypp Electric, including Goodyear Ventures, 9Unicorns, WFC, Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, IAN, Ivygrowth, and other angels, also participated in the round. The startup bagged $20 Mn in equity, and $5 Mn in debt from global impact fund IIX, along with a large national bank. 

This is also the first time a global impact fund and Indian banks participated in EV debt round for any fleet operator or startup in the country, Zypp Electric said in a statement.

The startup plans to utilise the fresh funding to expand its fleet of electric scooters to 2 Lakh from 10,000 and widen its footprint to 30 Indian cities by December 2025.

Founded in 2017 by Akash Gupta and Rashi Agarwal, Zypp Electric provides electric scooters for last-mile deliveries. It has collaborated with over 50 brands such as Zomato, Dunzo Swiggy, Amazon, JioMart BigBasket, Myntra, Flipkart, PharmEasy, and Delhivery. It claims to have already completed 15 Mn deliveries on electric vehicles for its large pool of top ecommerce partners.

Zypp Electric has raised $37.5 Mn till date, of which $30 Mn was in equity and $7.5 Mn in debt or asset leasing. 

The startup last raised around $7 Mn in its Series A funding round, led by 9Unicorns and Anthill Ventures, in September 2021. Its CEO and cofounder Gupta recently told Inc42 that the startup would need capital of around $25 Mn-$30 Mn to achieve its expansion goals.

In the statement about its latest fundraise, Zypp Electric said that it would also use the fresh funds to improve its driver experience, expand its EV hub infrastructure with Gogoro battery swapping, build sharp IOT and AI-enabled EV fleet management technology, and grow its operations team by hiring across technology and top-level positions. 

Overall, the funds will be spent mainly on team and technology, and the rest on growth and expansion across multiple markets and use cases, the startup said. 

“We’re excited to partner with Gogoro as its partner of growth as our Tech EV ecosystem becomes complete with their amazing battery swapping & EV offerings for the Indian market. Also, this is good for the entire EV industry where large pools of global capital have now started pouring in,” said Zypp Electric’s Gupta. 

The startup claims that it enables 10,000 Zypp-affiliated gig workers to earn more and save more via its EV full stack tech-enabled fleet management solution.

Commenting on the development, Gogoro founder and CEO Horace Luke said that as a leading player in the sustainable transformation of India’s fleet and last-mile delivery industry, the opportunity in front of Zypp Electric is immense. He added that as a major battery swapping company, Gogoro is also open to more such investments.

It must be noted that Gogoro and Zypp Electric announced a strategic B2B partnership in November last year to accelerate the electric transformation of fleets and last-mile deliveries in the country. Under the pilot project, the companies are deploying 100 battery-swapping-enabled electric scooters in Delhi NCR and six battery-swapping stations at Zypp hubs.

The booming EV industry in India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49% between 2022 and 2030, as per the government’s recently published Economic Survey 2022-23.