Premium electric motorcycle startup, Raptee has raised $3 Million in a Pre Series A round led by deep-tech VC fund Bluehill Capital. The all-equity funding round saw participation from industry stalwarts including Eugene Mayne, Founder and CEO of Tristar Global(UAE), Lakshmi Narayanan, Former CEO Cognizant, Ramesh Kannan, Managing Director, Kaynes Technology, Chandu Nair, Director, Shankara Building Products and other HNIs from India and the UAE.
The funds will be allocated towards augmenting the manufacturing facility, acquiring machinery, tooling for the soon to be launched motorcycle, and to scale up the team.
Raptee is a full stack electric motorcycle manufacturer with a strong technological moat that has been developed indigenously. The company has filed for 45+ patents so far. Raptee is the first Indian two-wheeler EV OEM to boldly introduce high-voltage drive train technology, along with an on-board charger, thereby making it compatible with the existing CCS2 public charging network, which is growing fast in India and across the Globe. Currently, India has over 9000 chargers installed which is comparable to the number of fuel pumps.
The high-voltage technology that is a critical part of Raptee motorcycles will also ensure much safer battery pack, with increased battery life and most importantly will address range anxiety.
Earlier in March, Raptee became the only OEM to receive a grant from ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India), the certifying authority for automobiles in India, towards the design and development of the high voltage powertrain. The first motorcycle is expected to debut in early 2024, with two experience centres in Chennai and Bangalore, subsequently expanding to 8 more cities by the end of the first year.
Dinesh Arjun, Co-founder CEO, Raptee, said, “India is the largest motorcycle market in the world, with EV adoption on the rise. At Raptee, we want to launch a motorcycle in a mid-premium segment for consumers who believe that EVs are a true upgrade from ICE vehicles. We are extremely fortunate to be backed by investors from the manufacturing and transportation industries who understand long-term value creation and can add strategic value for us as we gear up for production and scale up. This being our first institutional round, we’re also proud to be backed by a DeepTech VC, Bluehill Capital. We’ve been refining and testing our vehicles, and the results are very promising. We are looking forward to launching it very soon.”