Ather’s cofounders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain invested Rs 86 crore in the firm through series F compulsorily convertible preference shares, while debt fund Stride Ventures invested Rs 200 crore through series C3 debentures, documents filed by Ather with the Registrar of Companies showed.
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On April 23, ET first reported that Ather was finalising plans to raise $75-90 million (about Rs 750 crore) in primary funding from new and existing investors, with the funding round likely to be led by an existing investor which might value the firm between $850 million and $1 billion.
At the same time, Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal, one of the earliest investors in the firm, had sold a significant part of his holding in the company to Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath, while also looking to sell the remainder of his stake in the firm.
Bansal held 10.7% in the company, as per Tracxn data, having invested nearly Rs 400 crore since 2014. Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal is also an investor in the company with a 1% stake.
Ather Energy’s new fundraising comes after it postponed funding plans last year citing poor market conditions. Instead, it raised Rs 900 crore in September 2023 from Hero MotoCorp and GIC through a rights issue. In December, Hero MotoCorp increased its stake to 39.7% by investing another Rs 140 crore. Ather Energy didn’t disclose who sold shares at the December funding.
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National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and Tiger Global are among its other investors. Ather competes with the likes of Ola Electric, TVS and Bajaj in the electric scooter segment.Ather’s operating revenue grew over fourfold to Rs 1,784 crore in FY23, though its net loss also widened over twofold to Rs 864.5 crore.
On April 6, Ather Energy launched a new range of ‘Rizta’ scooters targeting the family segment. The firm, which has a total production capacity of 450,000 scooters per year, said it would expand production from the current 150,000 vehicles it makes per year after the Rizta hits the market.
