Yulu to raise $100 million to expand business model

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Electric two-wheeler startup Yulu is planning to raise up to $100 million to expand its business model and grab a larger pie of the growing last-mile mobility segment.

Yulu, which has created India’s largest battery as a service network with 3 million battery swaps till date, will expand its fleet to 100,000 units by the end of the year from 10,000 units currently, open up franchisee models to reach newer cities and cater to personal buyers in the next one year.

The company has so far raised $30 million in equity capital.

It has an outlay of $100 million in a combination of equity and debt to help accelerate growth.

The company is looking for 10x growth in the coming year, Amit Gupta, founder and CEO of Yulu, told ET.

“All the tailwinds lead it to usage – policies, the adoption, which is primarily led by the food delivery and grocery companies will drive the growth,” he said.

The fresh funding round will be done by both new and existing investors.

Most of its fleet was built through internal equity, but now Gupta is aiming to do that through debt and lease financing of vehicles as it has a proven track record.

Yulu says it is the largest shared electric mobility platform in the country with three million battery swaps so far. With expansion of fleet and new cities, it expects three million swaps a month by the end of December.

Gupta says Yulu has a deep partnership with two-wheeler maker Bajaj, which has been instrumental in curating its future strategy.

The company will also unveil a new range of electric two-wheelers, both for personal as well as last-mile mobility, with a fourth-generation battery built on the platform developed by Bajaj Auto.

As against imported kits used in the past, all new vehicles being designed and manufactured by Bajaj will be 100% made in India.

Beyond Yulu Dex and Yulu Miracle, a third product called Yulu Express with mid-speed to carry higher payload is in the pipeline for the e-commerce space. There is also one meant for personal buyers too.

“From overall look and feel it will be very different. It will be jazzier, personality and meat overall. Under the hood, it will be the same reliable set of motors, controllers and battery,” Gupta said.

Founded in 2017 by Amit Gupta, RK Misra, Hemant Gupta and Naveen Dachuri to cater to cleaner urban commute, it has on board marquee investors like Bajaj Auto, Blume, 3One4, WaveMaker, and Rocketship.

Instead of targeting entire cities, Yulu is adopting a cluster-based approach on pin codes to cater to high demand areas.

It has developed 3,000 Yulu zones – bay to swap vehicles, which will be expanded to 10,000 to 12,000 zones in the next one year

It provides urban Mobility-as-a-Service (uMaaS) in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR, which will expand to 10 locations including other major metros and tier 1 cities.

Yulu believes India has the largest potential market for micro-mobility, with just the top 10 cities offering a business potential of $26 billion.

In fact, the last-mile delivery market in 2021 stood at $5.4 billion. Garnering just 10% of revenues from goods transportation a year back, Yulu is expecting that to go up to 80% in the coming year. The company is likely to generate $100 million in revenues this financial year.

With increased fuel rates and cost of ownership of vehicles, the adoption of electric vehicles is expected to accelerate. Not only are Yulu bikes 50% cheaper than autorickshaws, but they are also 50% faster than cars in traffic.

The company says rides of Yulu are 35% cheaper than petrol counterparts and cleaner too. Yulu claims it has helped save over 10,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions so far.

Yulu’s vision, Gupta said, is to make city mobility seamless, shareable, and sustainable by making the company country’s largest AI-powered, vertically integrated battery infrastructure for electric two-wheelers.

On plans to get into last-mile, three–four-wheeled passenger vehicle mobility, Gupta admitted that it was an attractive space and something the board had already considered, but not one that was part of its immediate roadmap. (The Economic Times)