Indian Startups Zip Electric TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the company plans to use fresh investment from Japanese oil and energy group ENEOS to take its EV rental service to Southeast Asia as early as next year.
The company aims to have a presence in 15 markets in the next two years. Out of these 15 markets, Zypp Electric plans to launch its pilot in at least one Southeast Asian market early next year, co-founder and CEO Aakash Gupta told TechCrunch in an interview. The latest funding, amounting to $15 million and led by ENEOS, is part of Zypp Electric’s Series C round, which Gupta estimates will be between $35 million and $40 million and will close in six to eight weeks.
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are potential markets for Zypp Electric. All these countries are focused on two-wheelers and handle a lot of deliveries, the co-founder said, adding that Indonesia will be the first market to launch.
“We are thinking and discussing different ways [Southeast Asia launch plan] “We will work on this in the next two to three quarters with some players,” Gupta said.
He also revealed that the startup is in early talks to enter the Middle East as part of its global expansion. However, exact details of the launch in the Middle East were not disclosed.
The Gurugram-based startup, which currently operates in major Indian cities Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, offers an EV-as-a-service platform to e-commerce companies and gig workers. The platform includes an app and an accompanying software that provides fleet and delivery management as well as data and analytics for a fleet of electric two-wheelers. Gig economy workers, who can rent ebikes through a daily, weekly or monthly subscription, make up about 28% of Zypp’s revenue. The rest of its business serves courier, e-commerce, food and grocery delivery and ride-sharing companies such as Amazon, BigBasket, DHL, Uber, Swiggy, Zepto and Zomato. The startup’s platform is used to make 5 million deliveries every month.
Zip Electric is working to expand its business – both geographically and in terms of volume. The company has previously Plans to expand its fleet to 200,000 electric two-wheelers and will enter 30 Indian cities by the end of 2025. However, Gupta told TechCrunch that the startup has decided to go deeper into markets instead of launching in new cities with minimal presence.
The startup has also started offering electric three-wheelers in Delhi and Bengaluru and plans to expand to Mumbai soon. The co-founder said the three-wheeler fleet has already contributed 10% of the startup’s overall revenue.
Today, Zypp has around 15,000 electric two-wheelers in Delhi, 5,000 in Bengaluru, 1,000 in Mumbai and 500 in Hyderabad.
“Our idea is to go deeper into these markets and also launch a new market every quarter,” Gupta said. The company plans to increase its fleet of 22,000 electric two-wheelers to 50,000 by next year. According to Gupta, the company wants to increase its fleet to 200,000 electric two-wheelers in the next two and a half years.
In February last year, Zypp Electric raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Taiwanese battery-swapping company Gogoro. Its key backers also include Goodyear Ventures, Google for Startups and Shell E4.
Gupta said Zip Electric is already operationally profitable and is on track to become EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortization) positive in six to eight months and achieve profit after taxes in 12 to 14 months.
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