E-scooter startup Ather Energy appoints Ex-Apple exec Deepak Jain as CFO

Jain who has been a finance leader with exposure to large multi-location and transnational revenues, will play a key role in Ather's aggressive expansion plans

Smart electric scooter start-up Ather Energy has appointed Deepak Jain as the chief financial officer. Jain brings over 20 years of experience across global brands like First Advantage, Apple India, P&G and Gillette. He joins Ather after a five-year stint at First Advantage as CFO for their India business.

A specialist in conceptualising, leading and executing business expansion strategies, Jain will play a key role in Ather’s aggressive expansion plans. Earlier this year, Ather said it was gearing up to expand to about 50 cities across the country in five years. It also wants to take its scooters to global markets, including Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe in the same period.

“In his prior roles, Deepak has scaled up technology and product-led companies making him an ideal addition to Ather’s team.  For a rapidly expanding company like Ather, an important focus area is laying the structure for effective processes,” said Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO at Ather Energy. “We are scaling up to meet the demand for the Ather 450 across the country and this requires robust systems and operations. Deepak’s (Jain) experience in leading teams and integrating manufacturing and business processes will play a key role in the next part of our story,” he said.

A chartered accountant, Jain has been a finance leader with exposure to large multi-location and transnational revenues. He began his career at consulting firm E&Y before moving on to Gillette and Procter & Gamble, where he took on key leadership roles in distribution modelling and sales finance. In 2010, he joined Apple India as the CFO and led the finance team during a period of rapid growth for five years. 

“Working with Ather is a rare opportunity to work on cutting edge technology and building products that are setting the bar in the two-wheeler category,” said Jain. “I look forward to working with the team as we enter new markets and increase our footprint across India.”

Founded in 2013 by IIT Madras alumni, Tarun Mehta, and Swapnil Jain, Ather currently operates in Bengaluru and Chennai. The company which has been backed by the founders of e-commerce firm Flipkart, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, and Hero Motocorp has designed an intelligent electric scooter powered by a comprehensive public charging network. The firm said it has over 51 patent applications, 113 trademarks and 123 design registrations to its name.