Electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy announced securing ₹1,750 crore equity capital in its Series C round to drive its next phase of growth. According to reports from The Hindu BusinessLine, the round was led by Dr. Arokiaswamy Velumani Family Office, along with Simple Energy's Founder and CEO Suhas Rajkumar, and Co-founder and CFO Ankit Gupta. The funding round also included participation from Bengaluru-based HNI Amit Mishra and the Haran Family Office. With this latest fundraise, Simple Energy's total capital raised stands at $264 million (₹2,530 crore) from investors and family offices including Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani's Family Office, Amit Mishra, Balamurugan Arumugam, the Haran Family Office, the Desai Family Office and the Vasavi Family Office. As per The Hindu BusinessLine, the deal is structured in a way that helps the founders have more equity in the company, with Dr Velumani's family office leading the round with roughly 80 percent of the funding.
The funding comes days after Simple Energy launched the Simple Wave, its entry into the mass-market family scooter segment. The Wave is priced at an introductory ₹1,09,999, ex-showroom, with deliveries scheduled to begin in the last week of September. Founder and CEO Suhas Rajkumar stated that the company has invested nearly ₹200 crore in developing the Wave, including spending on suppliers and production facilities. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, around 80% of scooters sold in India fall into the family-scooter category, making it a much larger market for the company. The company has launched two products in the past eight months - the Simple Wave for the family-scooter segment and the Simple Ultra for the performance-scooter segment. Currently, Simple Energy sells three electric scooters — Simple One, Simple OneS and Simple Ultra.
This represents the company's largest funding round, taking total funding to $264 million (₹2,530 crore) to date from a mix of investors and HNIs. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, this funding comes close on the heels of a ₹250-crore fund infusion led by existing investors in a mix of debt and equity in June this year. The Series C round materialised three months after the EV startup closed its ₹250 Cr Series B funding round, which was also led by the family office of Dr. Arokiaswamy Velumani. CEO Suhas Rajkumar told PTI that the company was working on a large fundraiser earlier this month, stating that over the past few years, the company has built its core technology, products, manufacturing capabilities, and retail network in-house. According to the latest announcement, most of the fresh capital will support a new manufacturing facility, increased output at the existing plant and expansion of retail and service networks. The company currently operates at a production capacity of 10,000 units per month but has been operating at around 3,000 units per month.
Simple Energy currently operates at a production capacity of 10,000 units per month but has been operating at around 3,000 units per month. The company currently has more than 80 outlets across over 60 cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Patna, Hyderabad and Chennai. The startup, founded in 2019 by Rajkumar, was later joined by Shreshth Mishra and Gupta. The company is targeting a 10-12% share of the family scooter market over the next 24 months as it expands its retail network and production capacity. The company is primarily driven by two scooter models - Simple One and Simple Wave - of the four in its product portfolio.
According to The Hindu BusinessLine, most of the funds will be deployed in expanding retail and service networks, ramping up production at existing plants, and setting up a new manufacturing facility. The remaining funds will be used for recruitment across key functions and continuing investment in research and development for the next product cycle. CEO Rajkumar stated that "Our priorities are a new manufacturing facility, higher production, an expanded distribution and service network, and the next generation of products." Billionaire entrepreneur Arokiaswamy Velumani expressed confidence that with global challenges in fossil energy, Simple Energy is well positioned to be among the top three players in India's electric two-wheeler vertical within three years. Velumani, founder of Thyrocare, AVMLabs and AVMSmiles, said he has been associated with Simple Energy since its early days, noting that "Growth of 4x in a year says both the company and industry are growing rapidly." He highlighted that Simple Energy owns end-to-end technology for chassis, battery, motor and software, which is very rare in the Indian EV vertical. The fresh capital will help Simple support its next phase of growth by fueling key functions like marketing, supply chain, R&D and hiring.
