Indian startup Zypp Electric plans to expand its EV rental service to Southeast Asia early next year, leveraging new investment from Japanese oil and energy conglomerate ENEOS, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
The company aims to expand into 15 markets over the next two years. In an exclusive interview with TechCrunch, co-founder and CEO Akash Gupta said the company plans to begin piloting in at least one of those markets, a Southeast Asian market, early next year. The latest funding round, led by ENEOS, is $15 million and is part of Zypp Electric's Series C round. Gupta expects the deal to be between $35 million and $40 million, and to close in six to eight weeks.
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are potential markets for Zip Electric, as the co-founders said they are all two-wheeler-centric countries with lots of deliveries, adding that Indonesia would be its first market.
“We think and discuss in different ways. [Southeast Asia launch plan] “With a few players. We will reveal that in the next two to three quarters,” Gupta said.
He also said the startup is in early discussions to expand into the Middle East as part of its global expansion, though specific details about the Middle East expansion were not disclosed.
The Gurugram-based startup currently operates in major Indian cities Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad, and offers an EV service platform for e-commerce companies and gig workers. The platform includes an app and accompanying software that provides vehicle and delivery management, as well as data and analytics for the electric two-wheeler fleet. Gig economy workers, who can rent e-bikes on daily, weekly and monthly subscriptions, account for around 28% of Zypp's revenue. The remaining business is for courier, e-commerce, food and grocery delivery and ride-sharing companies such as Amazon, BigBasket, DHL, Uber, Swiggy, Zepto and Zomato. The startup's platform is used for 5 million deliveries every month.
Zypp Electric has been working on expanding both geographically and volume-wise: The company had previously planned to grow its electric two-wheelers to 200,000 units and be in 30 Indian cities by the end of 2025. But Gupta told TechCrunch that the startup decided to go deeper into the market rather than expanding into new cities where it has a weak presence.
The startup has also started selling its electric three-wheelers in Delhi and Bangalore, and plans to expand to Mumbai soon. Three-wheeler sales already account for 10% of the startup's total revenue, the co-founders said.
Currently, Zypp has around 15,000 electric two-wheelers in Delhi, 5,000 in Bengaluru, 1,000 in Mumbai and 500 in Hyderabad.
“The idea is to go deeper into these markets and at the same time open up new markets every quarter,” Gupta said. The company plans to increase its fleet of electric two-wheelers from 22,000 to 50,000 in the next 12 months. Gupta said the company wants to expand its fleet to 200,000 electric two-wheelers in the next two and a half years.
Zip Electric raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Taiwanese battery-swap company Gogoro in February last year, with other key backers including Goodyear Ventures, Google for Startups and Shell E4.
Gupta said Zip Electric is already operating profitable and expects to achieve EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) positive within six to eight months and after-tax profit within 12 to 14 months.