E-mobility And Batterytech Startup Sheru Raises Pre-Series A From Venture Catalysts And Others The startup plans to use the funds to expand into more cities and product innovation
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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E-mobility technology startup Sheru, on Wednesday, announced to have raised an undisclosed Pre-Series A round led by early-stage investor Venture Catalysts (Vcats). The round also saw participation from e-mobility-focused investors including AdvantEdge Founders, Micelio, and Climate Angels, along with Turbostart Accelerator.
Sheru would use the funds to accelerate its growth in tier-II and III markets while focusing on product development, innovation, and team building. The startup has built a unique AI-driven technology platform to connect manufacturers, financiers and operators to deliver pay-per-use energy products to e-mobility businesses.
"This round of funding will help Sheru prove the growth and risk management potential of the Tezz platform. We will use the capital towards scaling up the business and developing interoperability technologies. We are looking forward to making sustainable income accessible for the largest EV category of India to deliver impact and economic relief fast at scale, especially after COVID-19 disruptions," mentioned Ankit Mittal, co-founder, and chief executive officer, Sheru.
Sheru is building best in class full stack pay-per-use energy platform for the fast-growing EV space in India. India currently has more than 2 million e-rickshaws and adding another 50,000 new e-rickshaws every month, making it the largest EV form factor in the country. Given the scale, the company has targeted to start pay-per-use energy as a service solution for e-rickshaw owners to position Sheru as the platform for electric mobility businesses.
"SheruTezz is a revolutionary product in this space, unlocking a highly profitable value proposition for e-rickshaw drivers and partner manufacturers, financiers, and operators. Sheru's proprietary technology, combined with the founding team's vision, expertise, and foresight, makes us confident in our investment. We believe the pay-per-use model will play a pivotal role in democratizing access to electric vehicles for commercial use," said Abhimanyu Bisht, head of investments, Venture Catalysts.
"We have been working with the Sheru team for almost three years. Sheru has built a revolutionary proprietary tech stack with global potential to become the "AWS for energy'. E-Rickshaw is the first product category that Sheru is targeting to scale the platform but we can see them adding multiple form factors and expanding into other geographies given the rapid adoption of EV's across the globe," added Kunal Khattar, managing partner, AdvantEdge Founders.
Sheru operates in a space with an INR 16,000 crore opportunity at present with the potential to grow to INR 1,00,000 crore by 2025. The startup is set on course to exit this year, serving 10 lakh kilometers, and is continuously building network and platform capacity to scale this value proposition for two lakh drivers in three years, serving 2 crore net zero-emission kilometers per day.
