Etrio raises $3 Million in Series A to Launch New EV Product Lines
Hyderabad based retrofitted e-LCV pioneer, Etrio, announced the raise of USD 3 million in Series A round from HNI investors based out of Singapore. The group of investors is led by serial investor, Janardhan Rao, founder of Triumph Global Group, a Singapore head-quartered international commodity trading house with a consolidated revenue of over USD 900 MN.
In a bid to change the EV ecosystem, the investment will fuel the company's foray into new electric vehicles in three wheelers and bicycle product lines. The company aims to focus on customer acquisition across both B2B and Consumer segments. Touro, Etrio`s three-wheeler brand is scheduled for market launch in October 2020. It will have two variants Touro Mini and Max across both cargo and passenger segments. The cargo variant is currently undergoing pilots with leading e-commerce and logistics players and has already been booked for around 500 units. Stepping into the electric bicycle segment, Etrio will also introduce the Ashva and iSwitch e-bike lines in the coming months. The company plans to scale up aggressively by deploying its electric range of vehicles through a mix of sales and leasing options.
Etrio will also use this fresh principal to fuel its go-to-market strategy, set up sales & service networks across select cities, and hire key personnel over the next 6-9 months.
Commenting on this, Deepak MV, Co-founder & CEO, Etrio said, "With over a year of extensive work, we finally make our big transition from retrofitment to creation of new electric vehicles. We will continue to evolve as an EV OEM bringing reliable products based on superior vehicle architecture, efficient system integration, robust design, and connected systems to drive mass adoption of EVs in India.
With a formidable product portfolio including new three-wheelers and bicycles, we will be well-poised to become the fastest-growing electric vehicle player for intra-city logistics in the country.
With this funding, we will strengthen our product portfolio to target B2B logistics platforms for growth with diverse product offerings and more geographical presence. We aim to enter the highly-dense 3-wheeler EV market starting with the cargo segment aimed at e-commerce logistics space and then subsequently set up its channel network for driving both passenger and cargo 3-wheeler sales across major states in the North and South India. Our focus now is to deliver customer delight through the introduction of new product variants, superior after-sales service, data-driven approach and customer-centric culture", he added.
The company has dedicated vehicle manufacturing and assembly set-up spread across 20,000 sqft at Hyderabad and is in the process of achieving 100% localization of the supply chain by the end of the FY21.
This series A investment constitutes the first part of fundraising for the company and the company plans to raise an additional round in early FY22 towards investments for R&D for new product development, in-house manufacturing of key electric components and production capacity ramp-up.
The electric vehicle market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 43.13% between 2019 and 2030 in India. Two and three-wheeler vehicles will lead the electrification movement in the medium term. Founded in 2017, Etrio is in sync with the movement and has a portfolio with EVs across payloads ranging from 70 kg to 700 kg. With a comprehensive approach from building reliable and intelligent products, Etrio in a short span of time has established credibility and gained the trust of leading e-commerce and logistics players including Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket, Ikea, LetsTransport, and many others. Resonating this trust, their recently launched e-LCV has become the leading electric truck with a presence in 5 cities and having clocked more than 1.75 lakh km.