Ather Energy, a city-based start-up, that is currently designing a smart electric two-wheeler, today said it has received funding worth USD 12 million (Rs 75.33 crore) from Tiger Global.
The new round of funding will be used for development, testing, production and the launch of Ather's first smart electric two-wheeler - the Ather S340, the company said in a statement.
Ather Energy is the brainchild of IIT-Madras graduates Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain.
The company had received its first seed funding of USD 1 million in late 2014 from Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, founders of Flipkart, and Raju Venkatraman of Medall Healthcare, which provided the initial impetus for Ather's growth plans.
The company said Ather-S340 is a connected vehicle powered by lithium-Ion battery pack, featuring a digital touchscreen dashboard, has a light-weight aluminium chassis and offers a top speed of 75 kmph.
It has been designed by Ather from ground-up and will be the first electric scooter to be completely designed and manufactured in India, it added.
The S340 will also be one of the first connected vehicles in the country, the statement said, adding that this will ensure that all vehicle data is constantly logged and monitored enabling on-board diagnostics and issuing notifications for any maintenance.
"This investment will help us continue to evolve our product and scale it towards launch. We are very excited with the interest shown by Tiger Global and all our investors," Ather Energy CEO and co-founder Tarun Mehta said.
Ather said it is currently at an advanced stage of integration on the vehicle platform and testing of the functional prototype.
Test rides are scheduled for October this year and the company is already seeing an increasing number of sign-ups for the same on their website.
The Ather-S340 is planned for launch in Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi by early 2016.
