EV battery swapping startup Esmito raises $1.25M seed money

IIT Madras-incubated electric vehicles (EVs) startup Esmito has raised INR 10 crore ($1.25 million) in a seed round led by Unicorn India Ventures.

The funds will be deployed to expand swapping solutions and further strengthen the technology team.

The funding will enable Esmito to continue executing its growth strategy and strengthen its position as the largest swapping infra solutions provider. It aims to build multiple use cases in key segments like logistics and mobility as a service.

Esmito was founded in 2018 by Prabhjot Kaur, Hasan Ali, and Akhila Vijay Kumar. It provides swapping solutions and energy as a service to logistics and last-mile mobility players, including integrated products with web and mobile apps and embedded analytical modules.

The firm provides swapping solutions leveraging its IoT-enabled cloud platform. It aims to deepen its differentiation in swapping even though the swapping solutions industry is at a nascent stage.

The startup has built multiple EV technologies with the Centre for Battery Engineering and Electric Vehicles (CBEEV).

Esmito collects data from all sub-systems and performs intelligent data analytics across all the solutions, which assist in EV asset optimisation, inventory control, charging demand forecasts and driving patterns. The platform generates insightful reports for charger usage, battery and cell life analytics, vehicle performance, driving behaviour, and user transactions.

The company has also launched smart battery swap solutions for mobility service providers. The swapping infra solutions provider aims to build and scale further their swapping solutions for India’s two- and three-wheeler market.

Co-founder Ali said: “Based on our strengths in building scalable swapping technology, we believe that Esmito can unlock immense value for the end user, thereby accelerating EV adoption in the country.

Sparsh Kumar, Vice President, Unicorn India Ventures, added, “The EV industry, according to various estimates, is projected to see anywhere between 30-90 per cent CAGR, sustained through this decade and possibly even beyond. This roughly translates into EV sales overtaking ICE vehicle sales by the mid-to-late 2030s, with India becoming the 3^rd largest EV market.”