Battery swapping network, Chargeup, raises USD 2.5 million

Chargeup, the company hoping to build one of India’s largest battery-swapping network for electric two and three-wheelers, has announced that it has raised USD 2.5 million in pre-Series A round led by Capital-A and Anicut Capital.

Other marquee investors who participated in the round include actors Tiger Shroff & Shraddha Kapoor, Aman and Sameer Gupta (founders of Boat), also participated in this round, with Grip invested as the leasing partner. The fresh lease of funding will be used for the expansion of Chargeup’s network to new cities and building larger capacities to meet the growing demand.

Chargeup has adopted an advanced technology-driven approach to offer Battery as a Service (BaaS) with lightweight Lithium batteries that can be swapped at multi swap points. This enables unlimited swaps and km and helps the end-user to convert 50% of the vehicle cost from CapEx to OpEx, hence facilitating faster adoption of EVs. Battery swapping also eliminates range anxiety and the need for buying or managing batteries as the service provider takes care of these needs.

Chargeup’s standardized battery technology and execution capabilities are geared towards delivering its brand promise of a 2-minute battery swap within a radius of 2 km to ensure twice the revenue for drivers and dealer partners. Because of its partner-driver growth model, from 2 stations at the outset, the company has grown to 100 stations with 800 drivers on its platform, covering 2 million zero-emission km per month.

Speaking about this, Varun Goenka, CEO, and Co-founder, Chargeup said, “It is highly exciting to move ahead towards our long-term vision of the growth of zero-emission transportation across India. With this funding support, we aim to expand our network coverage and further enhance the capacities of our battery swapping stations to meet the growing demand. With a strong grip on the execution of this business, Chargeup has built a CapEx and OpEx light model thus making it fast and scalable. Chargeup’s tech-enabled network is managed through an advanced IoT solution to ease the operations for dealers and ensure asset security and utilization. We are rapidly expanding our network and aiming to benefit the lives of millions of e-rickshaw drivers in India, while also extending our solutions to growing delivery network of EV 2 & 3 wheelers”

Talking about the investment, Ankit Kedia, Founder, Capital-A said, “Development of sustainable and technology-driven support for mobility services is the need of the hour. Through its network of battery swapping stations, Chargeup is rapidly building a favourable EV ecosystem for faster adoption of EVs by eliminating the range anxiety as well as the challenge of battery ownership costs. As a venture fund committed to backing sustainable and cleantech companies, we are happy to be a part of Chargeup’s journey towards building an EV-centric future and support them in every way possible. This is our first investment as a part of our recently launched exclusive $10 million (INR 75 crore) cleantech fund ‘Evolve’.

Ashvin Chadha, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Anicut Angel Fund said, “Green mobility is the need of the hour. India is a massive country with humongous last-mile connectivity operations. With the emergence of electric mobility, there is also an equally growing need to build infrastructure that charges the EVs of tomorrow. Mass adoption of EVs will gain momentum only when the charging concerns are eliminated through solutions such as battery swapping. This is where Chargeup is going to be a key enabler, and we are looking forward to the brand’s journey in the Indian EV battery swapping/charging arena.”

According to estimates by Mordor Intelligence, the Indian Electric Vehicle Market was valued at USD 5 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 47 billion by 2026 registering a CAGR of above 44% during the forecast period (2021 – 2026). The Indian government plans to convert about 30% of all passenger vehicles to EVs by 2030 under the FAME-II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles-II) initiative. Removing battery cost from the equation can make EVs cheaper by up to 40% and make them affordable for fleet owners.