Electric vehicle manufacturer Simple Energy is in the process of raising USD 100 million as part of its next round of fund raising even as it scales up supply chain and retail footprint for its just launched product Simple One. Suhas Rajkumar, founder-CEO, Simple Energy said, “So far we had cumulatively raised just under USD 50 million and now we’re raising USD 100 million. We’ve already raised a large chunk of it and will complete the fund raise round by the end of this quarter.”
The current round has seen participation by family offices, institutions as well as the company’s existing shareholders. Simple Energy has just started production and it began selling its e-scooter from June first week.
Simple Energy has already totted up pre-orders of one lakh scooters which is an order book worth 1,500 crore. “We will complete delivering these by the end of the fiscal,” said Rajkumar. Simple, he added, is also investing in scaling up its retail and service network as well as ramping up marketing and getting the supply chain in place. “We want to scale up in the next three quarters,” he said.
“We want to open 100 plus retail outlets across India by the next 8-10 months. We will invest in working capital and retail and service network and marketing channels,” said Rajkumar. Simple, he added, will also invest in charging infrastructure starting from Bangalore from September.
Simple’s factory in Shoolagiri in Tamil Nadu has a current installed capacity of 25,000 units a month which is scalable to 45,000 units a month. “Right now we’re okay but to go beyond 45,000 units a month and hit a million units annually we need more investments in the factory,” he added. While there is no negative impact of the Fame 2 subsidies revision on the pre-orders for Simple, overall EV sales in June have tanked. “There is demand but we will have to see how Fame 2 revision impacts the market,” he said.
