Electric scooter maker Ather Energy has cruised into the unicorn league after closing a INR 600-crore (USD 71 million) funding from existing investor National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), multiple people briefed on the matter said. Post the funding, Ather has been valued at USD 1.3 billion, or about INR 10,900 crore, they said.
It is the country’s fourth unicorn this year and second in the mobility space after Rapido, which closed a USD 120-million funding from WestBridge Capital at a post-money valuation of USD 1 billion, as ET reported on July 29.
NIIF, the Indian sovereign wealth fund, first invested in Ather in May 2022.
The electric scooter maker was last valued at around USD 740-750 million in 2022, but Hero MotoCorp – its largest backer with a 40% shareholding – had invested INR 124 crore into the firm in a secondary transaction in June at an inferred valuation of USD 671 million (INR 5,636 crore).
ET had first reported on April 23 that Ather was finalising a USD 70-90 million (about INR 750 crore) in primary funding from existing investors after Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal exited the firm by selling his remaining stake to Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath. Bansal, in total, held around 10% in the company where he was the first angel investor.
Ather’s latest funding round comes at a time when its bigger rival Ola Electric’s stock has hit the upper circuit in two straight trading sessions since its listing on Friday. As of Monday, it has a market capitalisation of INR 48,258.89 crore, or USD 5.7 billion, on the BSE, compared to the last private valuation of USD 5.4 billion. Experts believe public market investors are seeing Ola Electric as a proxy to the EV industry’s growth potential.
Ather was the first new-age company investment from NIIF after it pulled back from its planned investment in omnichannel retailer FirstCry.
“NIIF has put in close to INR 600 crore and the round has now closed,” a person aware of the matter said.
A spokesperson for Ather declined to comment while an email sent to NIIF did not elicit any response till Monday press time.
Mobility and unicorn action
While late-stage funding activity has picked up pace, new unicorns are still a rare sighting compared to the record funding cycle of 2021. In 2022, India saw the number of new unicorns falling to 24 from 47 in the previous year. In 2023, there were only two new unicorns.
In May, Ather had raised INR 286 crore (USD 34 million) from its founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain as well as Stride Ventures in a mix of debt and equity funding at a lower valuation, sources said.
Mehta and Jain own about 7% each in Ather, according to Tracxn.
On July 16, auto and taxi ride-hailing app Namma Yatri raised its maiden funding of USD 11 million at a USD 55-million valuation, in a round led by Blume Ventures and Antler India with participation from US tech major Google.
ET reported on August 9 saying Swiggy-backed Rapido has crossed USD 1 billion in gross merchandise value aided by expansion of product offerings as well as taking the services to over 100 cities. ET also reported on August 8, citing sources, that Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal’s plans to charge up his mobility business with a foray into the quick commerce segment.
Ather, which recently started delivering its new family scooter Rizta, held about 9% market share in the electric scooter market last month, according to data from the government’s transport portal Vahan.
It trails incumbents Bajaj Auto and TVS, at 16% and 18% market share, besides market leader Ola Electric, which has a 39% market share.
The Bengaluru-based company has bet big on the Rizta, its first scooter for the family segment that is dominated by Ola. It is set to use its third manufacturing plant in Aurangabad to manufacture the Rizta, placing it closer to major family scooter markets in western and northern Indian states. Ather’s flagship 450 series of scooters operate in the performance scooter segment.
In late June, Ather Energy converted itself into a public limited company as part of its plans for a public listing in the near future. The firm’s loss widened over 22% to INR 1,059 crore in fiscal 2024 even as its revenue remained flat at around INR 1,789 crore.
