Electric vehicle startups Euler Motors and BLive raise funding

By Narinder Kapur

  • 17 Mar 2021
Credit: VCCircle

Euler Motors, an electric vehicle startup, has closed its Series A round at $9.5 million with an additional infusion of $2.6 million (around Rs 18.87 crore). 

In a statement, the company said it has raised this capital from ADB Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Asian Development Bank. Existing investor Blume Ventures also took part in this exercise. 

Earlier this month, the company raised Rs 30 crore (about $4 million) as part of the Series A funding. The round was led by existing investors Inventus India and Jetty Ventures, with participation from others including Udaan co-founder Sujeet Kumar. 

Euler Motors had raised Rs 20 crore in its Series A round led by Inventus India last year. It had first raised funding from Blume Ventures, Emergent Ventures and an individual investor in 2019. 

It will use the capital it has raised for the upcoming launch of its three-wheeled cargo vehicle, and will focus on expansion in cities such as Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Pune. 

BLive, an electric vehicle-based experiences platform, has raised $1 million (around Rs 7.26 crore) in a follow-on funding as part of its pre-Series A round. 

This infusion – comprising both equity and debt components – was led by LetsVenture, Mumbai Angels, JITO, and Credit Wise Capital, the Goa-based startup said in a statement. 

In April last year, the company raised an undisclosed sum from Mumbai Angels as part of this pre-Series A round. In September 2019, it raised nearly $1 million through a stake sale to entertainment and event platform DNA Networks.  

BLive, operated by Arcis Tours Pvt Ltd, was set up in 2018 by Samarth Kholkar and Sandeep Mukherjee. The company says it offers guided tours on electric bikes with an aim to promote sustainable tourism in the country. It is the official EV partner for Goa Tourism, and has partnered hospitality brands such as Club Mahindra and Taj Hotels. 

Kholkar and Mukherjee said the company is looking at growing its EV tours segment to over 30 locations and adding more two-wheeler EV brands and ownership models to its EV Store, through both online and offline channels.