IoT Startup Kazam Raises INR7 Cr In Seed Round Led By Inflection Point Ventures Funds raised will be used for product development, ramping up sales, operations, and marketing
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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IoT-based charging station Kazam on Wednesday announced to have raised INR7 crore in a seed round led by angel investment platform Inflection Point Ventures.
The funds raised will be used for product development, ramping up sales, operations, and marketing, as Kazam continues to provide the most affordable and smart electric vehicle charging stations made in India, and has set up over 30 charging stations in 5 states Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi/NCR, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu.
"In the last 5 years, the Government of India has announced multiple beneficial initiatives to increase the sales of EV vehicles. Many startups in electric mobility are scaling well and we have invested in quite a few. Thus, Kazam fits in organically as we believe with more electric mobility startups getting launched and scaled, the infrastructure and discovery need (especially charging the vehicles) will be critical in the overall success of this sector. Kazam's strong founding team has an in-depth understanding of technology and physical infrastructure needed to help the sector grow faster and this encouraged us to invest in the company," said Vinay Bansal, founder, and chief executive officer, Inflection Point Ventures.
The electric vehicle (EV) market has a large unaddressed need for charging infrastructure for all vehicles (2W/3W/4W), in both personal and commercial applications. Kazam aspires to be the most innovative, profitable, and consumer-obsessed product company through a network of charging stations enabled with IoT devices for connectivity, analytics, BMS, and the ability to meter and bill users through a simple app. According to a report by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), the EV market in India is projected to cross over 63 lakh units per year by 2027. The rise in the number of electric vehicles on the road would have a positive effect on cutting down carbon emissions of India and will also help Kazam scale up at an accelerated rate.
"Electric vehicles, especially 2W and 3W are growing at a rapid pace and Kazam has a solution for all the EV charging needs for fleet operators, home charging, and public charging. We not only provide hardware but the software needed to manage and operate on a daily basis. Our partnership with one of the leading EV fleet operators has already taken a good shape where we are seeing very high transaction rates on our station. We expect to put 10,000 charging stations in 2021-22 and build a robust team to support it. Even with the 2nd wave of COVID hitting our way, IPV and our other investors have stayed resilient and continue to believe in our vision to make electric mobility accessible to all," commented Akshay Shekhar, co-founder, Kazam.
In a short span of 5 months, Kazam has gone deep into the EV ecosystem. It has built the hardware and software tech for affordable and smart EV charging infrastructure. It has also built an open architecture to help other charging hardware manufacturers to use their protocols and APIs. Businesses can easily connect with the APIs to start their EV journeys.
"In the consumer segment, customers do want their hands on EVs but the lack of infrastructure makes them hesitant. Kazam's affordable charging stations and its approach to create micro-entrepreneurs who can host these smart charge-points to earn income, will create a network of charge-points across the country," added Vaibhav Tyagi, co-founder, Kazam.
In 2019-20, India's EV sales totaled 3.8 lakh units, with the EV battery demand totaling 5.4GWh. Last fiscal year, electric two-wheelers were the most common in the entire segment and the sale of high-speed electric two-wheelers is expected to increase rapidly in 2020 as more companies obtain FAME-II certification. The Indian Government is eager to improve EV infrastructure and the environment. Various national and state-level policies are currently being developed and implemented. The charging infrastructure specifications are being developed and enforced across the country, from the Bharat EV policy to state-by-state EV policies, Kazam is rightly poised to leverage this momentum and roll out their services to key markets in India, the platform shared.
