Ather raises Rs 900 crore from Singapore's GIC and Hero MotoCorp

7 Sep 2023 , 10:36 AM

Ather Energy, a manufacturer of electric scooters, announced on Wednesday that Hero MotoCorp and GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, have invested Rs 900 crore in the company.

Ather Energy cofounder and CEO Tarun Mehta remarked, ‘There was strong support for the rights offering, and we are extremely glad to witness the confidence demonstrated by shareholders.

According to him, the company believes that the country’s EV transition ‘will be led by world-class technology and products designed and built in India’ and has therefore planned its ‘largest outlay on research and development yet’ for 2023–2024.

This investment will enable us to broaden both our product offering and our geographic reach, according to Mehta.

That is included in the Rs 900 crore Ather disclosed on Wednesday.

Hero helped generate $128 million for Ather in January of last year.

The company reportedly planned to raise $250 million this year at a valuation of $1.3 billion, but shelved the plans due to the tech funding winter and a decline in sales following the government’s rollback of its Faster Adoption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME-II) subsidies in June.

The major shareholder Hero MotoCorp’s annual report states that Ather’s operating revenue increased by more than four times to Rs 1,806.1 crore in FY23. The company’s losses did, however, increase by more than 150% to Rs 864.5 crore.

In contrast, rival Ola Electric, which had revenues of $335 million (Rs 2,785.9 crore) in FY23, had an operating loss of $136 million (Rs 1,131 crore).

Ather introduced the entry-level 450S electric scooter with a 115 km range on August 11. Its current model 450X has a range of either 115 km or 145 km.

According to Vahan, the government’s portal for car registration, Ola Electric is still the market leader, selling 17,389 of the more than 59,000 electric two-wheelers that were sold in the nation in August.

In August, Ather sold 6,835 units. In contrast, when the FAME-II subsidies were still in effect, 12,184 units were sold in March of this year and 15,420 units in May.

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