By Business India Editorial

Bengaluru-based electric mobility start-up Yulu Bikes Pvt Ltd has raised $82 million (Rs653 crore) of Series B capital from mobility technology company, Magna International Inc, said a company statement.

It said that Yulu’s existing investors including Bajaj Auto have also participated in the round.

“We can clearly see a 100X growth opportunity for Yulu in both the BaaS (Battery-as-a-Service ) and MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service ) businesses in the next three-four years,” said Amit Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, Yulu.

Under its MaaS business, Yulu offers three variants of EV two wheelers —Miracle, a dockless bike, Move, a smart lock enabled bicycle, and DEX, which is designed for hyperlocal deliveries. These vehicles are available in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR. Under its BaaS platform, the company runs a network of battery charging and swapping stations named ‘Max Network’. 

“As the market leader in electric mobility, with a proven business model built on positive unit economics, our focus now will be to establish a robust and agile supply chain and scale-up our operations. We will go deeper & denser in our existing markets and explore new areas while delivering a great customer experience,” Gupta added.

With the fresh capital, Yulu aims to increase its EV fleet to more than 1 lakh electric two-wheelers along with 500+ battery charging and swapping stations in the next 12 months. The company, in a statement, said the expansion plans will help it reach free cash flow positive. 

As part of the transaction, Yulu will form a new entity with Magna named Yulu Energy to build its BaaS platform. Yulu Energy will create nation-wide battery charging & swapping infrastructure which will to cater to the demand from Yulu as well as vehicles made by other manufacturers. The partnership targets a capacity of one million battery swaps per day by 2030. According to the company, ‘Max Network’ has completed 3.5 million battery swaps to date. 

“This is an incredibly exciting time for Magna to contribute to a sustainable future in urban mobility through this investment in Yulu. Micromobility presents a great opportunity for additional growth for Magna, and joining forces with Yulu helps us expand our business into this rapidly growing sector,” Matteo Del Sorbo, Executive Vice President, Magna International and Global Lead of Magna New Mobility, said. 

Yulu has a strategic partnership with two-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto with which it collaborates on product design, technology platforms, engineering processes and manufacturing. Yulu’s next generation of electric two-wheelers will roll out of Bajaj’s Pune facility by this year-end.