HYDERABAD: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad-incubated startup PURE EV has raised venture capital funding of $35 million from Hyderabad-based pharmaceuticals visionary VC Nannapaneni, in his personal capacity.
The funding is coming at an opportune moment for the company with its plans for expansion of its manufacturing capacity and R&D initiatives. It is working on the development of high-speed and long-range scooter and motorcycle, which are scheduled for commercial launch in October this year and early 2020 respectively.
PURE EV has also been developing a prototype of HVDC electric truck/bus lithium battery modules and intends to showcase them in 2020 for potential collaborations. PURE EV is now looking to ramp up its EV manufacturing capacity to 2000 units per month by October 2019.
The company was founded in 2016 by Dr Nishanth Dongari, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, and is led by Rohit Vadera, an alumnus of IIT Bombay. The startup will continue to collaborate with R&D laboratories of IIT Hyderabad.
PURE EV recently launched four two-wheeler models - ‘EGNITE,’ ‘ETRANCE,’ ‘EPLUTO’ and ‘ETRON’. It aims to deploy over 10,000 electric vehicles on the road during 2019-20. It has established an 18,000-sqft state-of-the-art facility, co-located with IIT Hyderabad, for cutting-edge research and development and for large-scale production of electric vehicles and electric batteries.
The company had also recently launched its CMVR-exempted electric vehicles commercially in the market and is actively working on building strategic partnerships for vehicle financing and branding collaboration. Nannapaneni, speaking about his reasons for the investment, said, “We hope they are able to succeed in their vision to promote usage of electric vehicles amongst the masses.”
“The funding will be primarily utilised for expanding the manufacturing capacity by installation of an automated assembly line,” said Rohit Vadera, CEO, PURE EV.