Indian EV startup River raises $120 million Series C

Indian electric two-wheeler startup River has raised $120 million in a Series C round led by Elev8 Venture Partners and Claypond Capital, with participation from Singularity AMC, Anicut Capital, 360 ONE Asset, JIF Capital, and HDFC AMC. Existing backers Yamaha Motor, Al-Futtaim Group, and Mitsui also joined the round.

The new funding brings River’s total capital raised to $144 million since the company was founded in 2021. Unlike many EV startups that spread themselves across multiple vehicle lines, River has built its business around a single model, an electric moped called the Indie, priced at roughly 155,000 rupees, or about $1,630, with a range of around 99 miles per charge.

That focused approach appears to be paying off commercially. River now sells about 6,000 vehicles a month through more than 75 stores, and has sold more than 50,000 units of the Indie to date. Production has scaled sharply as demand has grown, rising from 20 vehicles a day to 300 vehicles a day.

The company’s revenue has grown even faster than its unit sales, up 330 percent in the fiscal year ended March 2026, with monthly revenue now around 1 billion rupees, or roughly $11 million. River says it is targeting operational profitability once it reaches a monthly production rate of 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles, a milestone it expects to hit by 2028 or 2029.

To support that growth, River is planning a new factory near Bengaluru, with the first phase expected to come online by mid-2027 and add annual production capacity of 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles. The company also plans to expand its retail footprint significantly, growing from its current store count to 200 stores by March 2027 and 400 stores by March 2028.

Founder and chief executive Aravind Mani said the single-model strategy has allowed River to concentrate its engineering and manufacturing resources rather than spreading them thin, a factor he credits with the company’s ability to scale production quickly while keeping costs under control as it competes in India’s crowded electric two-wheeler market.