Zypp Electric to Expand Into SE Asia After Japanese Investment

Indian EV startup Zypp Electric aims to take its EV bike rental service to Southeast Asia after securing fresh investment from Japanese oil and energy conglomerate ENEOS. The Gurugram-based startup’s co-founder and CEO Akash Gupta stated to TechCrunch in an interview [LINK] that it plans to enter 15 new markets in the next two years, starting with Indonesia and then potentially including Thailand and the Philippines. 

In the meantime, Zypp Electric will continue with its Series C round of funding which is estimated to fetch the company $35 million to $40 million in the next 6-8 weeks. This comes in addition to the $25 million it raised in its Series B funding round from Taiwan’s battery-swapping company Gogoro. 

Gupta says the company will lay out its expansion plans for SE Asia in the next 2-3 quarters. The Indian startup will also foray into the Middle East, and early talks have already commenced. However, exact launch timelines are yet to be disclosed. 

Currently, Zypp Electric operates in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, catering to e-commerce companies for gig workers/ riders. It also recently introduced its electric three-wheeler fleet in Delhi and Bengaluru, and that has already contributed 10 percent of the startup’s total revenue. 

However, contrary to previous statements that it would expand aggressively into more than 30 cities, Gupta said that the company now plans to go deeper into its established markets with its two-wheeler and three-wheeler fleets. Zypp Electric currently operates 15,000 electric two-wheelers in Delhi, 5,000 in Bengaluru, 1,000 in Mumbai, and 500 in Hyderabad. 

At its current pace, Zypp Electric predicts that it will become operationally profitable with positive Earnings Before Interest, Taxes and Amortization (EBITA) in the next 6-8 months, and profit after taxes will start to show in a year or so.