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Fueling with electricity offers a whole lot of advantages that are clearly not available with the conventional internal combustion engine vehicles that we have been using to date. Electric motors react quicker than the latter. They are very responsive and have impressive torque.
Besides, what’s more important is that the EVs follow the path of sustainable development because they are not driven by traditional fossil fuels like petrol, diesel, or LPG. Electric vehicles thus significantly contribute towards reducing the emissions that lead to climate change and smog, thereby putting a stop to many other forms of ecological damage and man-made environmental disasters too.
Choosing electric vehicles for transport has been proven to improve public health and the environment. These are a few of the many reasons why electric vehicles are here to stay.
Among the most popular electric vehicle manufacturing companies is Ather. Ather is an Indian electric vehicle company founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013 and goes by the name Ather Energy Pvt. Ltd. It currently manufactures the electric scooters, the Ather 450X and the Ather 450 Plus, where it launched the all-new Ather 450X 2022 on July 19, 2022. Furthermore, it has also established the electric vehicle charging infrastructure, Ather Grid, and is one of the most prominent rivals of Ola Electric.
Ather Energy has become a unicorn (a company valued at over $1 billion) just before its upcoming IPO. The company raised $71 million from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which is backed by the government, giving it a total value of $1.3 billion.
Here’s the company profile of Ather Energy: Know all about its owners, story, funding and investors, history, shareholding, business model, revenue model, growth, challenges faced, name, tagline, logo, and more.
Ather – Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Ather Energy |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Industry | Automotive Electric vehicles |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Tarun Mehta, Swapnil Jain |
| Valuation | $1.3 billion (August 2024) |
| Website | Atherenergy.com |
About Ather Energy
Ather Energy – Founders and Team
Ather Energy – Startup Story
Ather Energy – Name, Logo, and Tagline
Ather Energy – Mission
Ather Energy – Business Model
Ather Energy – Revenue and Growth
Ather Energy – Financials
Ather Energy – Funding and Investors
Ather Energy – Shareholding
Ather Energy – ESOPs
Ather Energy – IPO
Ather Energy – Competitors
Ather Energy – Awards and Recognitions
Ather Energy – Challenges Faced
Ather Energy – Partnerships
Ather Energy – Future Plans
About Ather Energy
Ather Energy is a startup focused on designing and selling premium electric two-wheelers for the Indian market. Ather wants to change the perspective on electric vehicles by building high-performance, zero-maintenance, and smart electric vehicles.
The company has manufactured two scooter models at present:: the 450 Plus and the the 450X. The 450X was upgraded, which helped Ather Energy launch the the 450X 2022 model on July 19, 2022. It has also established an electric vehicle charging network called AtherGrid.
It owns and operates its experience centers (called AtherSpace) to give the customers a complete ownership experience. The company launched the Ather 450 back in September 2018 and released the Ather 450X all across the country on January 28, 2020. The new version of 450X, 450X 3, was launched on July 19, 2022.
Though the sale of new Ather 450 scooters has been discontinued by the company since November 28, 2020, the company has pledged to fill up the gap with their 450X and 450 Plus models, where the latter will be launched soon.
Ather 450x is currently being delivered in 11+ Indian cities so far: Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kolkata, Coimbatore, and Ahmedabad.
Ather Energy’s customers believe that electric vehicles will shape urban commutes in the years to come. They choose to own the experience of a vehicle that is built from scratch, offers an unparalleled ride, and is powered by intelligence.
Ather Energy – Founders and Team
The founders of Ather Energy are Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. They founded Ather Energy in 2013.
Tarun Mehta
Tarun is the co-founder and CEO of Ather. Mehta is an IIT Madras alumnus who has completed a dual degree in engineering design before starting as a deputy manager at Ashok Leyland. He eventually decided to find Ather. Mehta interned at Mercedes Benz and BHEL during his college days.
Swapnil Jain
Swapnil Jail is the co-founder of Ather. He is also an alumnus of IIT Madras and has completed his integrated Master of Technology in Engineering Design. After completing a brief internship at General Motors and BHEL, Swapnil decided to find Ather with his college friend Tarun.
Ather currently operates with an employee strength of 1,001–5,000.
Ather Energy – Startup Story
Ather began its journey in October 2013 at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras Research Park. Mehta and co-founder Swapnil Jain, both IIT-M alumni (BTech and MTech batch of 2012 in engineering design), had set out to build India’s first smart electric scooter. They had brief stints at Ashok Leyland and General Motors, respectively.
Mehta recalls the support of R. Krishnakumar, a professor at the Department of Engineering Design at IIT-Madras. “If a professor says, ‘Leave your job and come back; we will take care of everything,’ I think that is a great morale boost,” says the Ather CEO.
“For the first five-six months, we literally camped out of the department. We were just hanging around in his labs and other department labs before we sort of reached a conclusion that ‘This seems interesting and we should actually start a company and build a product.’ It was a very important phase and he was super supportive then.”
In December 2014, Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal invested $1 million as seed capital. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal expressed positive sentiments towards the company and showed an inclination towards energy-efficient vehicles.
In December 2019, Ather Energy signed an MoU with the Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a 400,000-square-foot manufacturing plant for electrical vehicles in Hosur. The invested amount will be around ₹635 crore.
The company added two new products to its portfolio, the Ather 450X and the Ather 450 Plus, in January 2020. The Ather 450X is a premium electric scooter built from the ground up by Ather. A step above the Ather 450 in both features and performance, the Ather 450X has been meticulously designed to redefine the two-wheeler riding experience in India.
Ather Journey
Ather Energy – Name, Logo, and Tagline
The logo of Ather Energy represents that every electrical circuit is different, but the two things that remain constant are the start, represented by the line, and the stop, represented by the dot, in the circuit. This was much like Ather’s long-term goal of building a company that fundamentally believes in using runnable electric energy as the future of innovation.
Ather’s tagline: “All Brain. All Power. All Electric.”
Ather Energy – Mission
Ather’s mission statement says, “At Ather, we want to build the future of mobility—one that is connected and electric. We truly believe electricity is inevitable; there’s never been a better time. Intelligent vehicles are revolutionizing our commute experience, and the Ather 450 and 450X are on the cusp of this exciting reality. We are also in the midst of exploring the energy chain, including storage and distribution domains.”
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Sarika Anand
Ather Energy – Business Model
The company has announced an online-only purchase model for selling the product with doorstep service. It had set up its manufacturing unit in Whitefield, Bangalore, which commenced production in 2018 with a capacity of 600 vehicles per week. The company has disclosed the price of the Ather 450 to be Rs 1,35,000, and the price of the Ather 450X is Rs 1,38,006.
It also establishes Ather Grid, an electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the cities where it is present. The company has set up over 38 fast charging points in Bengaluru and 14 charging points in Chennai as of July 2020.
Ather will be setting up its new 400,000-square-foot facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, by the end of 2022. The new facility will be designed to produce 100,000 units annually and is scalable to half a million units.
Anik Banerjee
Ather Energy – Revenue and Growth
Ather Energy has been announced as the fourth largest-selling two-wheeler EV in India in the first half of 2021, where the company has successfully sold approximately 63,184 units. Though the valuation of Ather is yet to touch $1 billion, the company is really, witnessing good growth. It is currently operating with 38 experience centers across 32 cities in India. The company further hopes to take the number of experience centers to 150 across 100 Indian cities by 2023.
Ather has claimed that it has witnessed a whopping 800% growth in sales in 2021. The demand for Ather scooters is growing, and Ather is standing fit to deliver them now, revealed Swapnil Jain, co-founder and CTO of Ather. However, it’s true that though Ather has witnessed a surge in demand, it has failed to match the sales figures of its chief rival, Ola Electric.
Ather Energy Launched the 2022 450X 3 Electric Scooter
Ather launched the 2022 450X Gen 3 scooter on July 19, 2022. Here are some of the advantages of the Ather 2022 450X 3 scooters at a glance:
- These scooters will be equipped with bigger 3.7 kWh units instead of the earlier 2.6 kWh units
- The batteries will be 25% larger than those of the previous generation scooters
- These scooters boast an ARAI-certified range of 146 km and a TrueRangeTM of 105 km.
- They will also have wider rear tires
- The grips of the new generation Ather 450X will be 22% better than the previous generation scooter models.
- They will offer the all-new tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
- They are also built with a 7-inch built-in display and 2GB integrated RAM
- They will be fitted with the newly designed rearview mirrors, offering 2X better visibility and 5X reliability
- They will further have a new side-step made of single-cast aluminum
Ather Energy Launches 450S and 450X Electric Scooter
Ather unveiled the 450S on August 11, 2023, with prices starting at Rs 1.30 lakh. This remarkable electric vehicle boasts a 2.9 kWh battery, providing an impressive 115 km of range. When it comes to speed, the 450S can reach up to 90 kmph, making it a versatile choice for urban commuting.
Charging the battery is a breeze. At home, it takes just 6 hours and 36 minutes to charge from 0% to 80%. Alternatively, with the Ather Grid fast charger, the 450S can charge at a remarkable speed of up to 1.5 km per minute.
Ather also offers an upgraded version of the 450X, now available with both 2.9kWh and 3.7kWh battery options, extending the certified range to an impressive 115 km and 150 km, respectively.
Both of these electric scooters come equipped with innovative new switchgear and include two additional switches for added convenience and functionality.
Ather Sales
Ather Energy scooters have seen a month-on-month growth in their vehicle registrations for some months. However, the month of July was an exception, where the company witnessed a drop of 66%. It registered just 1,283 units in July, in contrast to May and June 2022, when Ather successfully registered 3338 and 3829 units, respectively.
Ather Energy – Financials
| Ather Financials | FY24 | FY23 | FY22 | FY21 | FY20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | INR 1,789.1 crore | INR 1,801.8 crore | INR 413.8 crore | INR 88.3 crore | INR 48.8 crore |
| Expenses | INR 2,674.2 crore | INR 2,666.3 crore | INR 757.9 crore | INR 321.6 crore | INR 268.7 crore |
| Profit/Loss | INR -1,059.7 crore | INR -864.5 crore | INR -344.1 crore | INR -233.3 crore | INR -219.9 crore |
Ather’s revenue in FY24 was nearly the same as FY23, slightly decreasing from INR 1,801.8 crore to INR 1,789.1 crore. However, expenses increased marginally from INR 2,666.3 crore to INR 2,674.2 crore. As a result, losses widened from INR 864.5 crore in FY23 to INR 1,059.7 crore in FY24, indicating higher costs despite stable revenue.
Ather Energy Revenue
Ather Energy’s revenue remained stable in FY24 compared to FY23, primarily driven by product sales.
| Revenue Breakdown | FY24 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue from Operations | INR 1,753.8 crore | INR 1,780.9 crore |
| Other Income | INR 35.3 crore | INR 20.9 crore |
| Total Revenue | INR 1,789.1 crore | INR 1,801.8 crore |
In FY24, Ather’s total revenue slightly declined to INR 1,789.1 crore from INR 1,801.8 crore in FY23. Revenue from operations dropped marginally from INR 1,780.9 crore to INR 1,753.8 crore, while other income increased from INR 20.9 crore to INR 35.3 crore. Despite this, rising expenses led to higher losses.
Ather Energy Expenses
Ather’s expenses surged due to increased material costs and employee benefits.
| Expense Category | FY24 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of Materials Consumed | INR 1,579.2 crore | INR 1,537 crore |
| Purchases of Stock-in-Trade | INR 27.9 crore | INR 92.3 crore |
| Employee Benefit Expense | INR 369.2 crore | INR 334.8 crore |
| Finance Costs | INR 89 crore | INR 65 crore |
| Depreciation & Amortization | INR 146.7 crore | INR 112.8 crore |
| Other Expenses | INR 437.5 crore | INR 558.3 crore |
In FY24, Ather’s total expenses increased slightly to INR 2,674.2 crore from INR 2,666.3 crore in FY23. The cost of materials consumed rose to INR 1,579.2 crore from INR 1,537 crore, and employee benefit expenses grew to INR 369.2 crore from INR 334.8 crore. However, other expenses declined from INR 558.3 crore to INR 437.5 crore, partially offsetting the overall increase in costs.
Ather Energy Profit/Loss
Losses widened further in FY24 due to increased costs and exceptional losses.
| Profit/Loss Metric | FY24 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| Gross Profit | INR -1,059.7 crore | INR -864.5 crore |
| Operating Profit | -INR 885.1 crore | INR -864.5 crore |
| Net Profit/Loss | INR -1,059.7 crore | INR -864.5 crore |
Ather continues to experience high losses in both operating and net profit, though the operating loss remained the same from FY23 to FY24. The company needs a shift in its cost structure to break even and achieve profitability.
Quick Summary
- Revenue: Revenue remained stable at INR 1,789.1 crore in FY24, compared to INR 1,801.8 crore in FY23.
- Expenses: Expenses increased slightly to INR 2,674.2 crore in FY24 from INR 2,666.3 crore in FY23.
- Loss: Loss widened to INR 1,059.7 crore in FY24 due to increased operational and exceptional costs.
Ather Energy – Funding and Investors
Ather Energy has raised a total of $578.3 million in funding over 11 rounds.
The latest funding was done by the Government-backed National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) of $71 million at a valuation of $1.3 billion making it a Unicorn.
The funding of $128 million, which came in on May 12, 2022, was led by NIIF Ltd. and Hero MotoCorp. It previously raised $56.46 million from Hero MotoCorp on January 14, 2022. Ather Energy has also raised Rs 130 crores ($17.24M) before that from Hero MotoCorp. With all this funding, Ather’s valuation is still shy of $1 billion.
The company raised Rs 84 crore from Hero MotoCorp in July 2020, which increased the auto giant’s stake in Ather to 34.58%. Hero MotoCorp currently holds over 34.8% of the stakes in Ather.
Ather Energy is currently funded by 5 main investors. Before the Serie E round, 34.8% stakes in Ather were held by Hero MotoCorp.
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 13, 2024 | Series E – IV | $71 million | National Investment and Infrastructure Fund |
| Sep 6, 2023 | Private Equity Round | $108.4 million | Hero MotorCorp, GIC |
| Oct 18, 2022 | Series E | $48.05 million | Caladium Investments |
| Sep 29, 2022 | Debt Financing | $6.01 million | InnoVen Capital |
| May 12, 2022 | Series E | $128 million | NIIF Ltd. and Hero MotoCorp |
| Jan 14, 2022 | Series D | $56.46 million | Hero MotoCorp |
| Jul 24, 2020 | Series E | $11.2 million | Hero MotoCorp Ltd. |
| May 28, 2019 | Series D | $51 million | Sachin Bansal |
| Oct 27, 2016 | Series C | $11.2 million | Hero MotoCorp Ltd |
| May 28, 2019 | Series C | $51 million | Sachin Bansal |
| Oct 27, 2016 | Series B | $27 million | Hero MotoCorp Ltd |
| May 29, 2015 | Series A | $12 million | Tiger Global Management |
| Dec 3, 2014 | Seed Round | $1 million | – |
The company successfully secured a substantial $108.4 million in funding through a private equity round, with Hero Motorcorp and GIC as the esteemed investors, on September 6, 2023.
Ather Energy – Shareholding
Ather’s shareholding pattern as of September 2024 sourced from Tracxn:
| Ather Shareholders | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Tarun Mehta | 6.5% |
| Swapnil Jain | 6.5% |
| NIIF | 16.4% |
| GIC | 14.6% |
| Tiger Global Management | 6.2% |
| Three State Capital Advisors | 0.9% |
| RTBI | 0.5% |
| Mehta Family Trust | 0.3% |
| Jain Family | 0.2% |
| Tarun Swarna Family Trust | 0.2% |
| Innoven Capital | 0.1% |
| Herald Investment Management | <0.1% |
| Volpi Cupal Trust | <0.1% |
| Scale Venture Partners | – |
| NKSquared Global | – |
| Hero MotoCorp | 34.3% |
| Kamath Associates | – |
| Angel | 6.7% |
| Other People | 0.7% |
| ESOP Pool | 5.7% |
| Other Investors | 0.2% |
| Total | 100.0% |
Ather Energy – ESOPs
Ather Energy has proposed to increase its ESOP pool size. The quantum of the existing Ather Energy ESOP Plan 2021 will reportedly increase by 7,808 stock options, which will increase the ESOP pool size from 37,209 options to 45,017 options, as per regulatory filings.
The Ather board has also approved the adoption of the founders’ stock option plan for 2022. The pool size, as per the agreement of the Series D shareholders, was 12,356 stock options. This is further reduced to 5,214 stock options, and the balance unused pool of 7,142 is proposed for cancellation, as per a separate filing by the company.
The founder’s stock options at Ather have been accessed for the first time and are estimated to be worth around INR 25 crore.
Ather Energy – IPO
Ather Energy submitted its draft papers to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 9 September 2024 for its upcoming IPO. The company plans to raise up to INR 3,100 crore (about $370 million) by issuing new equity shares and will also offer up to 2.2 crore shares for sale, as mentioned in the draft prospectus. The upcoming IPO is set to be valued at $2.4 billion.
Ather Energy – Competitors
The top 10 competitors in Ather Energy’s competitive set are:
- Ola Electric
- Hero MotoCorp
- GoGreenBOV
- Ampere
- Okinawa Scooters
- AVERA
- Bajaj Auto
- TVS
- Pure EV
- Tork Motors Pvt
Ather Energy – Awards and Recognitions
To sum up, some of the prominent awards and recognitions that Ather received would be:
- The Economic Times Start-up Awards, The Economic Times, 2016
- Most Promising Startup Impacting Automotive, IoT Next, 2016
- India Electric Mobility Technology Innovation Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan, 2016
Ather Energy – Challenges Faced
“The biggest challenge and opportunity when you are building an electric vehicle in India is that there is no local ecosystem and that includes not just vendors but also talent among other things. We completely missed out on this when we started the company and that’s why our timelines started looking different. The amount of money started looking very different as we got more and more into it,” says Tarun Mehta, CEO of Ather Energy.
Being a hardware startup, Ather has seen its challenges. Tarun Mehta has pointed out that in the case of Ather, they “can’t ship a minimum viable product.” “With hardware, you can’t move fast and break things”, added Mehta. This impeded the growth and delivery of Ather hugely, but the promising EV startup is finding ways to improve the delivery process and fasten the growth of the company.
Mehta also stated that for the EVs, “there’s no ecosystem in place in India”, which might have distributed the workload. Ather Energy CEO further added that the company is the sole manufacturer and distributor of the scooter, its batteries, and other accessories, and therefore, it must test all of them thoroughly.
Another challenge for the scooters is that there isn’t a promising culture of designing and developing products locally. “Finding the right talent to work at Ather has been challenging,” the Ather CEO said.
Ather e-bike fire accident
Ather reported a fire accident in one of its Chennai showrooms on May 27, 2022, which is the first fire accident that the bike manufacturers witnessed in their EVs. Within a few hours of the accident, the company confirmed via its official Twitter handle that the accident occurred in one of its damaged vehicles on water entering through the cracks of its battery pack.
Ather Energy – Partnerships
The company has partnered with like-minded organizations to “accelerate the adoption of electric mobility for a sustainable future,” says the Ather website. Some of the other popular partners of Ather Energy are WeWork and Altair. Here are some of the latest partnerships.
Vaidya Energy
On October 9, 2023, Ather Energy entered into a partnership with Vaidya Energy, a division of Vaidya’s Organization of Industries & Trading Hoses. With the help of this partnership, the business will facilitate product sales and services in Nepal and install fast charging stations.
OTO
In order to make it easier for young people in India’s Gen Z population to acquire Ather cars, OTO, a digital commerce platform and operator in the two-wheeler finance market, formed a strategic digital business relationship with Ather Energy on November 16, 2023.
Ather Energy – Future Plans
According to Mehta, the big challenge that now lay ahead of them was how to not make Ather feel like a boring automotive company keeping the culture and excitement alive while still bringing in the rigors and discipline that they need to get a world-class hardware product out.
With the factory plant in Whitefield, Bengaluru, the company is ready to begin production, and the orders coming in. Ather is getting ready with the first lot of production.
“The first lot planned is for 2,000 vehicles and over a year’s time, the production planned is 10,000 vehicles. Based on the supply chain constraints, we will have to decide the batch size of production,” says Jain, adding next will be ramp up both in sales and the product map. “When you do a new product, it is not very easy to assemble… manufacturing challenges will pop up. So, we will improve product from that perspective to be able to ramp up really fast.”
The team has begun work on developing a new vehicle platform that it says will be more scalable. It is slated to be ready soon. He won’t go with much financial detail, but according to Mehta, the 50,000-unit sales mark, when calculated on a per-unit basis, ought to be able to break even. The challenge for electric two-wheeler companies, though, will be to attract new customers.
Tarun Mehta, CEO of Ather Energy is looking to increase the capacity of the company to manufacture 35,000 scooters by this year from the present mark of 10,000 and aims to further hit the capacity of 1 million by next year.
Ather stands big and tall in the growing space with DNA going back to research labs, a design built from scratch, and a product that can be traced to custom spec sheets. Will that give it customers and success as a scooter company? Time will tell. But its journey this long is all about learnings, sucker punches, small wins, big bets, uncharted paths, and early positioning in a market that holds promise.
Harshit Verma
FAQs
What is Ather Energy?
Ather Energy is a startup focused on designing and selling premium electric two-wheeler vehicles for the Indian market. It is one of the best electric scooter startups in India. The company has offered two electric scooters for the Indian market, Ather 450 and 450X. Ather has recently introduced their latest electric vehicle, the 450S, to the market.
Who are Ather Energy owners?
Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain founded the Indian electric vehicle company Ather Energy in 2013.
What is the price of Ather 450X in India?
The price of the Ather 450X starts at Rs.1.18 Lakh and goes up to Rs.1.38 Lakh. Ather 450X is one of the two products offered by Ather Energy.
Ather is from which country?
Ather is an Indian company. The electric vehicle company was founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013.
What is the headquarters location of Ather Energy?
Ather Energy is an Indian electric vehicle company headquartered in Bengaluru.
Which companies does Ather compete with?
The top 10 competitors of Ather Energy are GoGreenBOV, Ampere, Ola Electric, Okinawa Scooters, AVERA, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, TVS, Pure EV, Tork Motors Pvt.
Who is Ather CEO?
The Ather CEO is Tarun Mehta.
What is Ather tagline?
Ather tagline is All Brain. All Power. All Electric.
Who is Ather founder?
Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain are Ather founders.
