Of the $10 million, $3 millIon is the equity component, and the rest is lease funding.
The funding round was led by Urmin Group, a packaged food manufacturing and processing company based in Ahmedabad, BillionElectric founder Kartikey Hariyani told ET. Urmin put $1 million in equity and $7 million in the lease component, he added.
Hariyani is also founder and CEO of electric vehicle (EV) charging infra firm Charge+zone, which in May had raised $54 million in a series A round led by global impact investment management firm BlueOrchard Finance.
While BillionElectric was founded as a separate company by Hariyani and Mustafa Wajid in 2020, the company started operations only in May 2023 after it powered two e-buses in Bengaluru’s international airport. Prior to that, it had run pilots in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Hariyani added.
“Currently, the e-buses you see on the airport tarmac are nine metres long, but we have introduced 15-metre buses. We are now planning to enter Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai airports,” Hariyani said.
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The funds will be allocated to two key initiatives — the deployment of electric tarmac buses at the Bengaluru international airport, and the development of a mid-mile e-truck platform. Mid-mile vehicles ply between ports to warehouses.The startup has already inked contracts to expand its services to 10 airports across India, following the initial launch in Bengaluru in collaboration with Veera Vahana, a bus manufacturer. The company has an order for 26 more such buses for Bengaluru itself.
BillionElectric will provide software services for electric vehicles, and charging infrastructure in collaboration with Charge+zone, a charging point operator.
The company currently has 15 employees, and is on the look-out for a chief executive and other key members, Hariyani added.
