Ather Energy Raises $34.5M from Co-Founders and Stride Ventures

Ather Energy, a prominent electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, has successfully secured Rs 286 crore ($34.5 million) through a mix of debt and equity financing. The funding includes a significant investment of Rs 200 crore from venture debt firm Stride Ventures via non-convertible debentures. Additionally, Ather’s co-founders, Tarun Sanjay Mehta and Swapnil Babanlal Jain, each contributed Rs 43.28 crore through Series F compulsory convertible preference shares, as per filings from the Registrar of Companies (ROC). This development was initially reported by Entrackr.

This recent funding round comes just nine months after the IPO-bound company announced a substantial Rs 900 crore raise from existing stakeholders Hero MotoCorp and GIC through a rights issue. Concurrently, Hero MotoCorp increased its stake in Ather by 3% with an additional investment of Rs 140 crore.

The filings also revealed that Ather Energy’s board of directors has approved the appointment of Kaushik Dutta as an independent director for a five-year term starting May 6, 2024. Dutta, currently the chairman of Zomato, also holds positions on the boards of HCL Infosystems Ltd, New Gen Software Limited, PolicyBazaar (PB Fintech) Limited, and Resilient Systems Private Limited (Bharat Pe). He is the founding co-director of Thought Arbitrage Research Institute, a non-profit organization, and a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Ather Energy, founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013, operates a network of over 1,400 charging stations across 100 cities. The company is known for its production of three electric scooter models: the Ather 450X, Ather 450 Plus, and Ather 450S. Despite its innovative contributions to the EV market, Ather reported a widened loss of Rs 344.1 crore for FY22, up from Rs 233.3 crore in the previous fiscal year.