With debt and equity, electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy has raised Rs 286 crore, or $34.5 million. This is the company’s first round of funding for the year, based in Bengaluru.
Based on the company’s regulatory filings retrieved from the Registrar of Companies, Stride Ventures invested Rs 200 crore through debentures, and co-founders Tarun Sanjay Mehta and Swapnil Babanlal Jain contributed Rs 43.28 crore each via Series F preference shares.
Through a right issue in December of last year, Ather Energy was able to raise its second-largest funding round of Rs 900 crore ($108 million) from Hero MotoCorp and GIC, two of its current investors. Hero MotoCorp also paid Rs 140 crore (roughly $16.8 million) for a 3% share in Ather in the same month.
Ather is reportedly in talks to raise $95 million in a pre-IPO round, according to a recent media report. Another report stated that Nikhil Kamath, the co-founder of Zerodha, has acquired a substantial portion of Ather’s current investor Sachin Bansal’s stake in the business.
Ather was reportedly valued at $750 million in the May 2022 Series E round, according to the media. But since then, it hasn’t revealed its valuation. It will probably become a unicorn in the next round.
Up until now, Ather has raised about $450 million. The largest external stakeholder is Hero MotoCorp, followed by Sachin Bansal, Caladium Investment, and Tiger Global, according to media.
In FY23, Ather’s operational revenue increased 4.36 times to Rs 1,784 crore, but its losses increased 2.5 times to Rs 864.5 crore during the same time frame. The company hasn’t submitted its FY24 financial results yet.
Compared to March, sales of electric two-wheelers decreased by 50% in April. After selling 17,000 units in March, Ather Energy sold 4,000 units in April. About 50% of all sales in the previous month came from the more than 33,000 units that Ola Electric sold.
