Motherson participates in EV charging start-up Exponent's $5 mn fundraise

YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital & AdvantEdge VC doubled down on their earlier investment within 8 months

Exponent Energy, a technology startup dedicated to simplifying energy for EVs, has secured $5 million in a Pre-Series A round of funding from auto components supplier Motherson Group and existing investors.

YourNest VC led the fresh round of funding while 3one4 Capital & AdvantEdge VC doubled down on their earlier investment.

Arun Vinayak, co-founder and CEO of said, “Motherson coming on board adds immense value to scale with respect to OEM relationships and manufacturing partnerships. Given the demand witnessed for our rapid charging technology in the logistics space, we prioritised closing the Pre-Series A to enter the market by early 2022.”

Exponent Energy aims to simplify the complicated, expensive and slow ‘EV energytrain’ - the flow of energy between the charger and battery, in India. In line with this, the company recently unveiled its battery pack andcharging station called the E-pack and E-pump, respectively, which together unlock a 15-minute rapid charge and give a 3,000-cycle life warranty (a new industry standard) — on a range of affordable Li-ion cells. This is made possible by its proprietary BMS and charging algorithms, layered on top of their unique E-pack design.

Laksh Vaaman Sehgal, Vice Chairman, Motherson Group, said: “As the auto industry adopts EVs, we want to remain a key player and partnering with startups like Exponent gives us a head start to be able to build offerings that help us to continue to expand and achieve our broader vision."

The company will use the funds raised to begin commercial operations and scale it across multiple cities starting with Bengaluru in early 2022. It plans to hire across product and engineering teams to ensure their products enter production.

Today, EVs take anywhere between 4 to 8 hours to charge with batteries that last ~1,000 cycles, creating a broken energy ecosystem. Long charge times lead to poor charging station utilisation, making them unprofitable as a business, and leading to a scarce network presence. Moreover, slow charging leads to larger unoptimised batteries to combat range anxiety, making an electric vehicle bulky and expensive. A short battery life drives battery pack financing skyhigh further adding pressure to the end consumer & hampering EV adoption.

Exponent Energy is led by Ather Energy’s former chief product officer Arun Vinayak and Sanjay Byalal, a former Ather Energy executive and HUL supply chain and operations manager.