Indian startup Zypp Electric plans to use new investment from Japanese oil and energy conglomerate ENEOS to bring its EV rental service to Southeast Asia early next year, according to TechCrunch exclusively.
The company aims to be in 15 markets in the next two years. Of those 15 markets, Zypp Electric plans to launch its pilot in at least one Southeast Asian market early next year, co-founder and CEO Akash Gupta told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. The latest funding, which totaled $15 million and was led by ENEOS, is part of Zypp Electric’s Series C round, which Gupta plans to be worth 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.
“There are different ways we think about it and talk about it [Southeast Asia launch plan] with few players. We will roll it out in the next two to three quarters,” Gupta said.
He also said the startup is in early talks to foray into the Middle East as part of its global expansion. However, the 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 aimed at e-commerce companies and gig workers. The platform includes an app and companion software that provides data and analytics for fleet and delivery management, as well as a fleet of electric two-wheelers. Gig economy workers, who can rent the ebikes through a daily, weekly or monthly subscription, make up about 28% of Zypp’s revenue. Its remaining businesses serve 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.
Zypp Electric is working to expand its business — geographically and by volume. The company earlier planned to expand its fleet to 200,000 electric two-wheelers and enter 30 cities in India by the end of 2025. However, Gupta told TechCrunch that the startup decided to go deeper into markets instead of launching in new cities with minimal presence.
The startup has also started offering electric tricycles in Delhi and Bangalore and plans to expand to Mumbai very soon. The three-wheeler fleet already contributes 10% of the startup’s total revenue, the co-founder said.
Today, Zypp has about 15,000 electric two-wheelers in Delhi, 5,000 in Bangalore, 1,000 in Mumbai and 500 in Hyderabad.
“The idea is to go deeper into these markets and at the same time launch a new market every quarter,” Gupta said. The company plans to increase its fleet from 22,000 electric two-wheelers to 50,000 within the next year. The company wants to expand further to a fleet of 200,000 electric two-wheelers in the next two-and-a-half years, according to Gupta.
In February last year, Zypp Electric raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Taiwan battery exchange company Gogoro. It also counts Goodyear Ventures, Google for Startups and Shell E4 among its key backers.
Gupta said Zypp Electric is already operationally profitable and on track to become EBITA (earnings before tax and depreciation) positive in six to eight months and achieve profit after tax in 12 to 14 months.
