Ather Energy, which is based out from Bengaluru, has received a funding of USD 12 million (Rs 75.33 crores approx) from Tiger Global. The fresh round of funding will be utilised for the development, production, testing as well as launch of the Ather S340 – the company’s first smart electric two-wheeler. Ather has been founded by ex-IITians Swapnil Jain and Tarun Mehta. The company was born in the Engineering Design Department of IIT-Madras in 2013 followed by development in the Incubation Cell at IIT Madras later. The first round of funds was received from Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in December 2014, which was approximately USD 1 million.
Ather S340 is essentially a connected two-wheeler that is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. It features a digital touchscreen dashboard and comes with a lightweight aluminium chassis. With a top speed of 75 kilometres per hour, this two-wheeler has been designed by Ather right from ground-up. After production, it will be the first electric scooter to be designed and manufactured in India solely. The stylish dashboard on the scooter will enable the riders to develop a personalised profile, which will allow them to choose riding modes as well as set other preferences while riding.
The current round of funding will be solely utilised for development purposes. Tarun said, Now, Ather Energy is almost ready with the complete prototype. For the coming three-five months, rigorous testing and design will be the main focus. By Oct-Nov’15, we are aiming to finalize the final design and the vehicle will hit the production by early next year. This investment will help us continue to evolve our product and scale it towards launch.”
When asked about the product, he added, "Our strengths are our philosophies which have even led sometimes to get us out of the investors’ discussion. We believe in and are working towards vertical integration involving intuitive product design. We can’t just take any element off the shelf and put it on Ather bike. Everything from design to development is taking place from scratch.” Also, he said, Ather Energy doesn’t classify itself in electric vehicle category, but in the automotive industry. We’re building smart vehicles which is very different than the Hero electric or other existing vehicles, in terms of speed, performance and target group. Ather stands for futuristic technology and machine learning that’s visible from every component we’ve designed for the vehicle.”
