Ather Energy raises $51 million in latest funding led by Flipkart’s co-founder Sachin Bansal

Ather Energy, the Bengaluru based company known for its range of electric scooters has been gradually expanding its presence in the country, with Chennai being the second city after Bengaluru. Today, the company raised an investment of $51 million in its latest round of funding, led by Flipkart's co-founder Sachin Bansal's investment of $32 million. When Sachin Bansal invested $0.5 million in the company as an Angel investor in 2014, Ather Energy was one of the earliest start-up investments for him. As a part of this round, Hero MotoCorp has converted its Convertible Debt of $19 million and additionally, InnoVen Capital has extended an $8 million venture debt. The company also plans to set up a new manufacturing facility which will be designed to produce 1 million vehicles a year and also set up 6500 Ather Grid fast charging points across the country over the next 5 years with an investment of Rs. 130 crores. Last year, Ather Energy opened pre-orders for Ather 450 in Bengaluru and began delivering the scooters in September 2018. But, they have an order backlog of about five months and the company plans to utilize this fund for expansion of capacity to 25000 units per annum and also add 3 ...