Bangalore-based multi-utility electric two-wheeler startup kWh Bikes has raised $2 million (Rs 14.8 crore) in a seed round led by Let’s Venture. Better Capital and Cloud Capital also participated. It aims to use the funds to take its prototype into production and expand R&D across various EV components like battery, BMS, VCU, and motor.

The start-up claims the funding is amongst the largest seed round in the Indian EV space so far and has seen participation from Renu Satti (ex-CEO, Paytm Payments Bank); Vijay Shekhar Sharma (CEO, Paytm); Rajiv Nazareth (ALF Engineering); Paresh Sukthankar (ex-Deputy MD, HDFC); Dipak Gupta (MD, Kotak); Matt Van Horn (co-founder, Lyft); Haresh Chawla (ex-Group CEO, Network 18); Ravish Naresh (CEO, Khatabook); Rohit Chanana (Sarcha Advisors); Hitesh Oberoi (CEO, InfoEdge); T Gautham Pai (MD, Manipal Media); Gaurav Munjal (CEO, Unacademy) and Kirill Kozhevnikov (Partner, RTP Global), amongst others.

kWh Bikes was founded in March 2020 by electrical and electronics engineers –Siddharth Janghu, whose previous venture was backed by Tiger Global, and Kartik Gupta, who headed software projects at Tesla and BMW and moved from Silicon Valley back to India. The firm says it is building the world’s strongest, smartest, safest, and best performing multi-utility electric scooters. The team says it has successfully built a working prototype from scratch and is now engineering their production-ready scooter, which will be completely designed and developed in India with an in-house powertrain. While the company has not disclosed much details about its first product, it is learnt that the kWh e-scooter is equipped with a strong steel chassis, have a peak torque of 140 Nm, 150km range on a single charge, top speed of 70kph and loading ability of 250kg.

Siddharth Janghu, co-founder and CEO, kWh Bikes said, “The fact that we are a vertically integrated and not an assembled product, helps us get superior performance and in the long-term, that is what will matter. The best product will win, and we are confident about that being ours.”

Kartik Gupta, co-founder and CTO, kWh Bikes added, “We are also building software-driven superior robust battery packs, which make our vehicles deliver high performance in extreme conditions.”

Sunitha Ramaswamy, president, Early Stage, Let’s Venture, pointed out, “Investors on Let’s Venture see immense potential in India’s EV market. With favourable regulations coming into play we are looking forward to working with Siddharth and the team who now look to scale the future of electric mobility.”

The start-up aims to introduce its product for the B2B market first and then venture into the retail space.