Reliance Industries: RIL drives into electric CV maker Altigreen with 4 VCs
RIL’s Reliance New Energy Ltd (RNEL) subsidiary, Sixth Sense Ventures, Xponentia Capital, Accurant International of the US and Singapore’s Momentum Venture Capital participated in the Series A funding round for the EV startup.
RNEL will pay ₹50 crore to subscribe to 34,000 Series A compulsorily convertible preference shares of face value ₹100 each in a transaction that will be completed by March, RIL said in a statement.
“The investment is part of our company’s strategic intent of collaborating with innovative companies in new energy and new mobility ecosystems,” said RIL, which has announced a series of acquisitions in the new energy space in the past few months after unveiling its ₹75,000-crore plan last year to build a clean energy business.
Bengaluru-based Altigreen has developed an electric three-wheeler, using a locally made mobility platform. The nine-year-old company has 26 global patents spanning 60 countries, as per the RIL statement.
“A good part of the investment will be in R&D. We have on board investors who are also bringing their expertise to the table. For one, Reliance New Energy is investing heavily in non-li-ion batteries and we get access to those technologies,” Altigreen cofounder Amitabh Saran told ET.
Altigreen, which had posted revenue of ₹1 crore in 2020-21, is targeting to have 3-5 vehicles in its portfolio in the next 2-3 years. The company aims to increase manufacturing capacity to 40,000 units annually in the next six months, start selling in 60 cities in 15 months from a dozen cities now, Saran said.
“We draw comfort with Altigreen’s primary focus on the 3W segment within the EV space – which fundamentally is less cluttered and under-penetrated,” said Nikhil Vora, founder & CEO of Sixth Sense.
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