Indian EV startup EVage raises $28 million, will build electric vans for Amazon

Indian startup EVage which is developing electric delivery vans for e-commerce and logistics companies including Amazon has raised $28 million from a US-based venture capital firm RedBlue Capital, stated the company on Friday. The company is the first startup to create an electric van in India from the ground up.

Inderveer Singh, the company's Founder and Chief Executive informed that the money will help EVage complete its factory in northern India as well as help in starting the delivery of thousands of vehicles that are on order. However, Singh refrained from stating the number of orders. Though, he did mention that it has been working with companies that include Amazon to design and test its one-tonne electric van which it will launch this year.

As the country's EV market is at a shooting stage, Amazon aims to have 10,000 electric vehicles for deliveries by 2025 while Walmart's Flipkart aims to have 25,000 EVs by 2030. Olaf Sakkers, General Partner at RedBlue Capital said that the electric vehicle market in India will boom with this shift in the movement of goods, and electrifying this segment will be a big opportunity. Sakkers, whose firm invests in mobility start-ups globally said “Compared with the West, India and markets like Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America have unique demands in terms of the price and capacity of the vehicle, road conditions and weather."

Sakkers also added that one can see EVage as more of Rivian and Arrival for developing markets. With electric vehicle makers Rivian in the United States and Arrival in the UK, this Indian startup is betting on a global shift by delivery companies towards cleaner mobility.

(With inputs from Reuters)