Electric Mobility firm Baaz Bikes raises $8 million in Series A round led by BIG Capital

Baaz Bikes driven by gig workers from Zomato, Swiggy and other firms.

Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing startup Baaz Bikes has raised $8 million in its Series A funding round, led by Singapore-based venture capital firm BIG capital with participation from Rakuten Capital, Japan-based Rakuten Group’s venture capital arm as investors take big bets on Greentech and EV sectors in India.

The firm also saw participation from its existing investors Kalaari Capital and  9Unicorns.

Baaz Bikes plans to utilise the funding towards expansion and to add more battery swapping stations. A substantial part of the funding will be deployed towards the refinement and enhancement of Baaz's product portfolio and technological innovation.

“Right now we are providing everything on subscription-basis, we also want to move towards an ownership model as well. We are working on a sale and subscription model and we will also use the funding towards newer products as well for different use-cases,” Baaz Bikes’ cofounder Anubhav Sharma told Moneycontrol in an interaction.

Currently, Baaz is live in the South Delhi Region and plans to expand further into other parts of Delhi NCR region.

“In the next 12 months, Baaz will expand its footprints throughout the entire Delhi and NCR region by amplifying its Baaz Swap Infrastructure, promising an even wider accessibility for gig workers,” said Sharma.

The firm plans to cover 500 pincodes in the next 9-12 months from 50 pin codes presently in Delhi NCR, Sharma added.

Founded in 2019 by by four IIT Delhi Alumni Sharma, Shubham Srivastava, Abhijeet Saxena and Karan Singla, Baaz Bikes is a full stack EV ecosystem that provides the gig delivery riders an access to its bikes, which is supported by its Dense Automated Battery Swapping Infrastructure (Baaz Swap). This helps the gig delivery riders to efficiently make deliveries with least cost.

Baaz Bikes has a manufacturing facility in Faridabad, which makes 1,000 EV scooters per day.

The firm which is currently working for food and ecommerce delivery firms like Zomato, Zepto, Amazon and more is also looking to launch EVs designed for bike-taxis.

“Bike taxis are an emerging market and we will also be launching specific models for this segment as well. In fact, we are seeing increased demand for this segment and we are in touch with multiple players,” Sharma added.

This comes at a time when investors are betting big on Greentech and EV sectors. EV startup Raptee raised $3 million in funding and recently Euler Motors announced raising Rs 120 crore in its Series C funding round.

In February 2022, Baaz Bikes raised $2 million in its pre-Series A funding round led by Kalaari Capital.

“We are in a pilot revenue stage, we are seeing positive unit economics and we are looking to expand which will increase our revenues as well,” Sharma said.