EV scooter maker Simple Energy raises $20 mn in bridge funding to ramp up production

Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy has raised over $20 million as part of an ongoing bridge round to ramp up production of its upcoming e-scooter named Simple ONE. 

The bridge round was raised from a host of investors including Arokiaswamy Velumani, Founder, of Thyrocare; Ashwin Hinduja of Gokaldas Group; Sanjay & Sandeep Wadhawa of Nash Industries; Sripriya Kalyanasundaram, Chief Strategy and Evangelist to CEO’s office, Lambda Test and Purple Moon Ventures along with existing investors including Manish Bharti of UiPath and Vasavi Green Tech.

“With the propagation of EVs catching up on a massive scale in India, we believe in being a key participant in this eco-system. We have received a phenomenal pre-booking response and to cater to the demand, we are raising funds in a timely manner,” Suhas Rajkumar, Founder and CEO of Simple Energy, said. 

“The funds raised will be strategically used to aid the production ramp-up and for a quicker delivery commencement. We have successfully de-bottlenecked product constraints and are confident that we will soon start deliveries,” he added. 

Founded in 2019, the company launched its flagship electric scooter ‘Simple One’ on August 15, 2021 with four riding modes namely Eco, Ride, Dash and Sonic. The company claims to have received over one lakh bookings for the model so far. 

Simple Energy announced a $21 million oversubscribed pre-series investment round in November, 2021 from a clutch of investors including UiPath executives Bharti and Raghunath Subramanian, Sattva Group, Athiyas Group and several high net-worth individuals (HNIs). This investment was to be utilized to increase manufacturing capacity, accelerate new product development, and expand experience centres, consequently bolstering the company's expansion plans. It recently inaugurated a new facility in Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu with an initial investment of Rs 100. 

“Simple Energy is one of the few startups which has all the ingredients to be a market leader: founders with diverse expertise; customer-first approach; benchmarking of the product by category; understanding of customer needs; and a clear vision of products to be introduced in the market over the next 36 months,” Velumani of Thyrocare said.  

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