Switching battery network in a pre-Series B funding round, $33 million was raised by Battery Smart. The startup’s current investors Tiger Global and Blume Ventures, as well as new investors The Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF) and British International Investment (BII), participated in the round.
By doing so, the business has amassed over $70 million, including a $9 million debt due in December 2022 and a $25 million Series A round in June of last year. The company said in a press release that it will use the additional capital to grow its geographic reach and add 100K new customers to its network by 2025.
According to media reports, Battery Smart’s valuation during the most recent equity round was around $126 million. There was no way to determine the most recent valuation.
Battery Smart, based in Gurugram, offers cutting-edge lithium-ion batteries for electric two- and three-wheelers that can be switched out for fully charged ones at any of its swapping stations in under two minutes. The business claims that its battery-as-a-service (BaaS) solution allows customers to avoid significant up-front expenses.
The company claims that since receiving Series A funding, both its revenue and customer base have increased by a factor of six, building a network of more than 600 swap stations spread across 25 cities. More than 12 million battery swaps have been completed by the business to date, and it has 25,000 active customers in tier I, II, and III cities.
In addition to others, the company is in competition with Sun Mobility, Bounce Infinity, Lithium Power, Chargeup, and RACEnergy.
The operational revenue of Battery Smart increased 44X, from Rs 18 lakh in FY21 to Rs 7.95 crore in the fiscal year ending in March 2022. During that time, the company’s losses increased 23-fold to Rs 13.08 crore. The business has not yet submitted its FY23 financial information.
In contrast to the previous two years, Tiger Global backed just three businesses in 2023, almost refraining from making any investments in Indian startups. It made an investment in its portfolio company PhonePe in January, while the New York-based fund’s inaugural new investment for the year was Infinite Uptime.
