Early Stage VC SeaFund Invests in 5 DeepTech Startups 

Early stage focused Seafund Ventures has invested INR 5 crore across five sustainability focused startups. The fund plans to invest 20% of its entire investible corpus in clean energy and the EV value chain including sectors like transportation, logistics and circular economy. SeaFund is currently raising its second fund with a target corpus of INR 250 crore.

The fund has invested in Redwings, Docker Vision, Swapp Design, Simatricals and Evhicle.

Docker Vision

Docker Vision uses computer imaging and AI to accelerate mobility of shipping containers at ports and assess the conditions in realtime.

The co-founders of the Kerala-based startup are Prajith Nair and Athira Muraleedharan. Before he became the CEO at Docker Vision, Prajith was an Electrical Design Engineer. Athira boasts a strong technical background, with a deep understanding of data science and machine learning.

A month ago, the startup had announced securing funding through SanchiConnect’s PreSeed Accelerator program with support from venture capital firms ThinKuvate along with Seafund.

Docker Vision’s says that its flagship AI-powered Gate OCR, or dOCR, helps cut waiting times and lower carbon emissions while also introducing panoramic imaging for efficient damage detection in cargo handling.

Swapp Design 

Swapp Design has designed an interoperable and modular architecture for fast battery swapping using autonomous robots.

The co-founders of Swapp Design are Buddhabrata Chakravorty and Pathi Mohan Rao. Pathi Mohan Rao has worked with leading EV firms such as SUN Mobility, Ola Electric Mobility, Mahindra Electric Mobility in the past. Buddhabrata, on the other hand, has the experience of leading a team of engineers on Japanese OEM projects – Mazda, Honda, Suzuki, Nissan, Mitsubishi.

Simatricals

Simatricals makes robust autonomous EV wireless charging solutions that provides high-speed charging through auto alignment that is suitable for different vehicles classes.

The co-founders of Simatricals include Balaji Sriram and Mihir Mishra.

Balaji Sriram is a Doctoral Researcher from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Mihir Mishra had pursued his BTech in Mathematics and Computer Science at Lovely Professional University.

Evhicle

Evhicle produces Vehicle Control Units (VCUs) that provides intelligence to EVs to optimise vehicle dynamics, telemetry, payload monitoring and over the air updates.

The co-founders of Evhicle are Harshad Bokil, Sanjay Patil and Shrikant Deshmukh.
Bokil is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology. His experience entails working with ispace, where he was responsible for the design, test, and integration of the electrical power system of the Lunar Lander. Shrikant has total 21 years of experience in automotive, locomotive engine testing and development.

RedWing

It designs, develops and deploys fully autonomous drones to transform logistics supply chains and is at the forefront of commercialising these services in India.

Co-founders are Rishabh Gupta, Anshul Sharma and Arunabha Bhattacharya.

Rishabh’s experience includes working in engineering, product management. He has worked in fundraising, product development and setting up supply chains.

Anshul Sharma has been associated with Techstars USA, which is a VC accelerator programme in the world.

Manoj Agarwal, Managing Partner, SeaFund says, “We believe that the EV landscape in India is at its nascent stage and the opportunity from clean mobility to EV Tech is now beginning to be explored as more investors are understanding the thesis of growth. We take pride in the fact that for us sustainability and EV related sectors have always been a priority and it is now that we are seeing real innovation across the value chain. We will continue to help our portfolio companies to scale and continue to look for fresh investment opportunities in this sector.”

Seafund is investing in these five startups, which have been selected as a culmination of an exhaustive nation-wide process. In addition to the monetary investment, the companies will also benefit from market access and acceleration programs over the next few months.

Narendra Bhandari, General Partner, SeaFund, says, “As we continue to raise our second fund, we are seeing a huge interest in the Indian EV landscape from the LPs. The wider conversation is that the shift towards cleaner and more sustainable models is no more a choice but a necessity given the fast deterioration in the environment in our cities. Coupling this with disruptive startups emerging from several corners of India is encouraging early investors like us to work with the founders and provide them with capital and access to grow their businesses.”

SeaFund intends to invest a larger amount in one or more of these startups as they scale and meet their performance milestones and show growth – in consonance with its fund philosophy of deploying more than 50% of its corpus in follow-on rounds. Seafund will continue to work with them and would look forward to investing more in these and other potentials who offer unique EV based mobility solutions. This is also part of Seafund’s ESG strategy to build a powerful portfolio across various climate focused technologies.

“Adoption of EVs is accelerating in India and has reached a tipping point through the alignment of government policies, a homegrown ecosystem of design and manufacturing entities and now, the availability of capital to fund these ventures. The early adopters of EVs are the B2B logistics and supply chain players who are using these for last mile delivery as the economics make for a compelling use case.  ESG goals of the enterprises and policy makers are propelling EV adoption at a rapid pace in this sector,” adds Mayuresh Raut, Managing Partner, SeaFund Ventures.

Several reports concur that the Indian electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem is seeing an influx of investments. Between January 2023 to August 2023, deals to the tune of $1.2bn have been announced. In 2022, 3,300 deals were concluded globally. The largest capital raised was in energy storage, renewables, energy distribution, and electric mobility.

Among the most recent emobility firms to announce funding is Baaz Bikes.