Ather Energy raises $128 mn in series E round

Chennai: Electric vehicle (EV) maker Ather Energy on Thursday said it has closed a Series E round of funding, raising $128 million from the national sovereign fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited’s (NIIFL’s) Strategic Opportunities Fund, existing and significant shareholder Hero MotoCorp, and other investors.
This is Ather’s first large institutional financing after a 7-year gap after the EV startup’s fundraise from Tiger Global back in 2015. So far, Ather has raised over $230 million in total funding. The company did not disclose its valuation but said it had improved significantly from the previous round. This is also NIIFL’s first direct investment in the manufacturing sector and in electric mobility.
“This is a double validation of sorts for us. Not just as the first EV company backed by the sovereign fund but also as it is our first significant institutional capital raise after a long gap,” Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO, Ather Energy, said. “We have been busy executing all these years, have run a very tight ship since commercial launch in 2018, and it was now time to fix our liquidity to meet our priorities for the coming year,” he added.
Ather Energy plans to use the fundin