Electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure startup Revos has received $4 million from venture capital firms, US-based Union Square Ventures (USV) and Bengaluru-headquartered Prime Venture Partners (PVP), as part of its Series A round.
Revos has raised about $4.5 million so far, including the latest round.
The company will use the capital to deploy EV chargers across the country and strengthen its technology team, its founders told ET. It plans to expand its network to one million chargers in the next three years.
“We are thrilled to have the backing and trust of leading VC players in India and the US. They share our vision – that the key to increased adoption of EV vehicles is making charging easier,” said Jyotiranjan Harichandan, cofounder, Revos.
The startup also hopes to expand into other emerging markets. It is expected to hire across all business functions in the next few months.
Since its launch in 2019, Revos has been deployed in 10,000 devices, especially two-wheeler and three-wheeler EV chargers, by 30 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) across India, China, Vietnam, Nepal and Egypt.
This is USV’s first investment in India. In the last two years, USV has been developing a separate climate thesis for companies working to mitigate the climate crisis. It has set up a fund, now worth $162 million, for this purpose.
“As part of the overall climate thesis, we have been developing specific ideas. One of the obvious things to look at is the electrification of transportation. That led us to looking at parts of the world that are still adding a lot of new transportation. If you could add transportation in the form of electric vehicles right away, you don’t have to replace a lot of rolling stock. That has led us to places like India and China,” said Albert Wenger, managing partner, USV.
Future investments in India will be made keeping the climate thesis in mind, Wenger said.
USV is particularly looking at more efficient, low-emission cooling solutions.
“People need air conditioning, especially in places like India where it’s getting hotter. We are looking for companies which provide this in a way that is affordable, accessible and climate friendly,” he said.
This is also Prime Venture Partners’ first direct investment in the EV sector.
Prime is an early-stage venture fund with a portfolio of 30 companies across sectors such as education, healthcare and logistics.
“The move to EVs is essential and inevitable. India runs on two/three wheelers. Making recharging available “anytime, anywhere” was pivotal to the penetration of mobiles in India. We believe Revos is well positioned to trigger a similar inflexion in the EV market,” said Sanjay Swamy, managing partner, PVP.