Simple Energy in talks to raise $100-m funding from existing, global investors

Electric scooter manufacturer Simple Energy is in talks to raise Series-A funding of $100 million from global investors along with existing investors Manish Bharti, and Raghunath Subramanian. Simple Energy is eyeing a unicorn valuation with the closing of its Series A fundraise later this year.

The company will use the funds to increase its footprint across India and for setting up the second phase of the factory in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, and invest in R&D. The company is working on a 2-lakh sq ft factory in Hosur and phase 1 of the factory is said to have an annual production capacity of 1 million.

Launched on August 15, Simple Energy’s flagship e-scooter, The Simple One, is priced at ₹1,0,9999 (ex-showroom). The Simple One is said to have received over 30,000 pre-bookings between August 15 and August 20. Before the launch, the company had raised $15 million in funding.

Maximum range

Simple Energy offers a maximum claimed range of 236 km and a range of 203 km in Eco mode. This is comparatively higher than most of the e-scooters in the Indian market. On an average, the new-age e-scooter companies offer around 116 - 181 km range on single charge.

Founder and CEO Suhas Rajkumar attributes the range to the fact that Simple Energy has built its motors in-house. The company was started three-years-ago as a component R&D company, which has now grown into an automobile manufacturer. “When you have multiple subsystems, they have to be synchronised to deliver a certain output. To achieve the 236km range, we pre-decided what is the required torque for such an output, what should be the power output, and what is the kind of characteristic a motor should show etc,” said Rajkumar.

He added that if the company had borrowed the technology, it would have restricted the efficiency of the motor to 60 per cent. But having control over the powertrain allowed them to achieve 95 per cent efficiency. Further, Simple Energy claims that 99 per cent of its manufacturing is localised. The company is only importing the cells for the vehicle and the rest of the vehicle parts are built by Simple Energy locally. The company also claims to have built its own battery packs and even patented its design. Simple One uses a 4.8 kWh lithium-ion battery.

The e-scooter is available in four colours — Azzure Blue, Brazen Black, Grace White, and Namma Red. The top speed of the vehicle is said to be 105 kmph, with an acceleration of 0 to 40 kmph claimed in 2.9 seconds.

Other features

Simple One has 72 Nm of torque and 4.5 kW of power and has a weight of 110 kg and boot space of 30 lts. It is a connected scooter that is 4G enabled, and will have four riding modes, namely Eco, Ride, Dash, and Sonic which can be accessed through a 7-inch touchscreen panel. Its other features include Bluetooth connectivity, geo-fencing, over-the-air updates, onboard navigation, access to music control and call control to the connected smartphone, remote telemetrics and a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS).

Simple One comes with a removable battery pack weighing 7 kg, which can be charged at any 15A charging socket. The electric scooter has a tubular steel chassis with a telescopic front fork, symmetrically mounted progressive mono-shock rear suspension, and 12-inch wheels with 200 mm front disc and 180 mm rear disc.

The e-scooter has been launched across 13 States:Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Punjab.

The company recently launched the Simple Loop charging network for public as well as home charging. The company aims to launch over 300 charging stations in the next seven months across 13 States. The charging stations will allow any electric vehicle to be charged.