Hero MotoCorp Invests Rs. 205 Crore in Ather Energy – Electric Vehicles start-up

Hero MotoCorp – India’s largest two wheeler manufacturer has decided to invest an amount of Rs. 205 crore thereby acquiring shareholding in the range of 26-30% in Ather Energy – a Bangalore-based technology start-up engaged in the business of designing and manufacturing smart Electric Vehicles (EV) and associated charging infrastructure.

This comes at a time when Hero MotoCorp looks to enhance its own internal Electric Vehicles Program.
The other investors in the startup include the co-founders of Flipkart – Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal the providers of Seed money of $1 million and Series A led by its other investor Tiger Global Management of US$12 million (Rs.75.33 crore).
Ather has been founded by two friends and IIT Madras graduates Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. They recently unveiled the electric scooter called S340 in February this year (S340 refers to S for the Scooter, 3 for the 3KWh capacity of the electric motor and 40 for the 40Amp battery capacity).
Ather announced that it will start taking pre-orders by Q2 end 2016 in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. Its new manufacturing unit will also have a battery unit and the capacity to produce 50 scooters a day at peak production.