Bounce plans to raise $200 mn to scale up its electric vehicle business

Bengaluru-based firm's vision is to make EV mainstream in India and sell at least 2 mn scooters on an annual basis in next few years

Bounce, the Bengaluru-based smart mobility solutions company which unveiling its first consumer electric scooter — Bounce Infinity E1, has plans to raise funding of around $200 million to scale up operations of its electric vehicle (EV) business.

The Bounce Infinity E1 is being offered with a unique ‘battery as a service’ option — the first-of-its-kind in the Indian market. 

“Fortunately, we are well-funded. We have the backing of our investors. We are also talking to new investors. But our vision is to make EV mainstream in India,” said Vivekananda Hallekere, chief executive officer and co-founder, Bounce. “This business will need at least a couple of billion dollars to take it to the scale we have in mind,” he added.

Bounce is in competition with electric two-wheeler makers, such as SoftBank-backed Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Hero Electric, Bajaj’s Chetak, TVS Motor Com­pany, and Boom Motors. The firm, backed by marquee investors, such as Accel, Sequoia, and B Capital Group, had raised over $220 million in funding. Bounce had acquired a 100 per cent stake in 22Motors in a deal valued at around $7 million in 2021, including its state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Bhiwadi in Rajasthan that has an annual capacity to produce 180,000 scooters.

Considering the potential of the Indian market, the company is planning to set up another plant in South India. The plan is to have a capacity of around 500,000 scooters there. Bounce has set aside $100 million to be invested in the EV business over the next one year.

“In the next few years, if we can have a battery-swapping infrastructure for 2 million scooters and if we can sell at least 1-2 million scooters on an annual basis, it’s a good success story for us,” said Hallekere. 

In 2019, Bounce became the world’s fastest-growing bike-sharing firm, doing 60,000 rides per day. That number went up to 120,000 rides a day by 2020. The firm’s valuation crossed $500 million after it raised $105 million last year.

The start-up, founded in 2014, was scaling on a par with global players, including US-based scooter-rental companies Bird and Lime. It had plans to expand in the country and also to get into markets abroad.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. As the government anno­unced restrictions to contain the spread, its users, mainly employees and students, were locked down in their homes. Bounce laid off employees and Co-Founders Vivekananda Hallekere, Varun Agni, and Anil G took a 100 per cent pay cut.

To tackle the Covid-induced downturn, the firm changed its strategy and jumped on the EV bandwagon. This included betting big on the opportunity of scaling up its battery-swapping infrastructure.