India-based battery swapping station startup, Battery Smart announced it has raised an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round led by early-stage VC firm Orios Venture Partners.
Angel investment platform Faad Network also participated in the funding round.
Battery Smart provides advanced lithium-ion batteries to electric rickshaws on a membership basis, where the driver can stop at any of the company’s partner swapping stations and get a fully charged battery against a discharged battery.
The company has also partnered with local small stores along high traffic routes, enabling an additional source of income for shop owners. Its small store partners are provided with smart chargers, and a mobile app to run the swap operations at their premises.
“The earnings of E-Rickshaw drivers is capped as they use lead acid batteries that need 10 hours of charging time and have a limited battery life of 6 months,” said Pulkit Khurana, co-founder of Battery Smart in a statement.
Currently, the company has 25 operational battery swap stations in Delhi, with over 1,000 battery swaps every week on its network. It aims to set up 300 battery swapping stations in Delhi-NCR by the end of the year and bring 5,000 electric rickshaw drivers on its platform in the next 10 months.
Orios Venture Partners has also backed companies including Pharmeasy, GoMechanic, Country Delight, Beato, ShopG, Gullynetwork, and Zupee among others.
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