Gurugram-based electric vehicle startup Zypp is planning to raise around $50 million over the next five years to expand operations. The company, that currently provides electric scooters on rent to consumers mostly in the NCR, is looking at raising $12 million over the next 6-7 months.
“We are in talks with 6-7 venture capitalists for the next round of funding which we are hopeful of closing over the next six months. We are actively looking to raise around $10-12 million dollars in the next round,” Zypp chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder Akash Gupta said in an interview.
The company, that started operations in August 2017, has launched an e-scooter sharing app that provides last mile provide last mile connectivity to both B2C and B2B customers. It mainly focuses on enabling small trips of less than 5 kilometres.
The electric scooter is Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled and can be tracked anytime and anywhere in its journey. The app also allows monitoring the battery life and locking and unlocking the scooter.
“Around 50 per cent of our trips are of less than 5 kilometer. We observed the home delivery segment mostly uses two-wheelers with players like Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon, Grofers etc. We now intend to convert all the deliveries happening in the country into the electric mobility mode,” said Gupta.
The startup has so far raised close to $3 million. Of that, $2.2 million came from IAN Fund. “As March was hit due to the covid 19 outbreak, our revenue generation would be at $1 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) by April end this year,” Gupta said.
He also said the company plans to expand its fleet from the existing 1,500 electric scooters to around 15,000 over the next year. The company plans to expand into cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai and the future fund-raising efforts would be aimed at this geographical expansion.
The company has tied-up with three Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for supply of electric scooters. Its consumers in the B2C segment stand at around 300,000 apart from 25-30 B2B clients. Zypp is also planning to diversify its fleet soon by adding three-wheelers.
