EV Startup Zypp Electric Raises $7 Mn, Plans To Expand Its Fleet To 100K Vehicles

EV-based last mile delivery startup Zypp Electric has raised around $7 Mn in a Series A round led by 9Unicorns and Anthill Ventures. 

The round also witnessed participation from marquee family offices and early-stage funds including Nanavati Family Office, We Founder Circle, Silicon Valley based Riso Capital Fund, Dholakia Ventures along with existing investors Venture Catalysts and IAN Fund. 

Angel investors like Tarun Saraf of Warehouse Now, Rahul Khera of AWL logistics, Arjun Seth, Mark Joseph also invested in this round of funding. 

Founded in 2017 by Akash Gupta and Rashi Agarwal provides electric scooters on rent to its clients. It aims to electrify the hyperlocal delivery space and also envisions disrupting and transforming the future of the last mile delivery with right EVs, battery swapping infrastructure, IOT, and AI/ML platform.

The EV startup has tied up with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) such as Hero Electric, Etrio and Piaggio to procure the vehicles. With the fresh funding, Zypp has so far raised $12.5 Mn.

Cofounder and CEO of Zypp Electric, Akash Gupta said, “The electric logistics vision is a $123 Bn market in India and we can see multiple unicorns in this space.”

Gupta said that Zypp would be using the fresh funds in rapidly scaling up the business over the next 12 months in building an asset-light EV business with simple charging solutions, having a fintech model of EV onboarding and focusing on technology to utilise the fleet capacity so as to help generate better savings and earnings for delivery executives. 

The logistics startup plans to continue to expand from 10 cities to 25 cities and grow its EV fleet to 100,000 EVs in the next few years.

Talking about the potential of the EV market and Zypp in particular, Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Founder of 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts said: “The EV market in India is slated to be a $206 Bn market by 2030 and the two-wheeler especially has a massive potential with a 100% FDI and different schemes rolled out by the Centre to make two-wheeler EVs affordable and increase the production.”

Gurugram-based Zypp works with about 200 B2B grocery and other hyperlocal delivery companies in the country including BigBasket, Amazon, Rapido, Flipkart, Spencers, Grofers, Citymall, Dealshare amongst others. It has over 2,000 EVs across cities including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai & Pune.

The tech-based hyperlocal delivery market has witnessed tremendous growth in the past few years. By the end of 2020, India’s hyperlocal market crossed the INR 2,306 Cr mark. 

This time around, unlike the hyperlocal bubble of 2016, startups in the hyperlocal space are not only focussing on lowering delivery cost and increasing margins, but also not expanding recklessly. The sector saw massive upheaval in 2016 with over 400 startups recorded and 100+ startups shutting shops.

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