Magenta Mobility raises $22 million from bp, Morgan Stanley India Infra
Magenta, a developer of electric mobility solutions, announced on Wednesday that it has closed a Series A1 funding round with a $22 million equity investment from the UK-based bp and Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure-managed investment fund.
According to Maxson Lewis, Founder and Managing Director of Magenta Mobility, the firm intends to spend the newly raised capital on fleet and regional expansion, as well as invest a portion of the funds in technology development, as it focuses on “sustainable and profitable” growth.
Furthermore, bp’s joint venture with Reliance, Jio-bp, will be the sole EV charging partner for Magenta Mobility’s fleet as part of this commitment, he said.
The Pune-based startup, which was seed-funded by HPCL, has 750 electric vehicles operating in the last-mile delivery area across seven cities: Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Mysuru, and Noida, catering to some of the country’s biggest e-commerce, food, and online delivery players.
In these cities, it also runs 35 charging and parking facilities.
“We have closed a Series A1 funding round, raising $ 22 million (about Rs 180 crore) with two market key investors– bp of UK and an investment fund managed by Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure. These are the two key investors now on board with us,” Lewis told PTI. “It is not a pure investment, it is a strategic investment,” he added.
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Nominations for the AWARD Energy Leadership Awards 2023 are being accepted until Monday, May 1, 2023. Nominate Right Now Leadership Development & Strategic Innovation GURU MASTERCLASS 25 – 26 Jul 2023 2 Days Register Now Next The new financing raises the company’s overall fund to Rs 275 crore, with as much as Rs 95 crore already raised in successive rounds, notably from Indian-American philanthropist and serial entrepreneur Kiran Patel.
According to a release, bp and Magenta Mobility will also collaborate on electric fleet management software.
India is a crucial market for bp’s global electrification company, bp pulse, with more than 100 million online buyers and the government’s objective of electrifying e-commerce deliveries and logistics by 2030, according to Magenta.
“This investment …is a significant milestone for the company as we look to build on our strong foundations in the EV space over the last four years. This investment and backing will catapult us in scaling our tech-led electric mobility platform across the country,” Lewis stated.
He stated that the company will add another 150 electric vehicles in the last-mile delivery market in the next few days, with the goal of eventually having a robust 4,000-vehicle fleet comprised of both three and four-wheelers in the next year.
According to him, the financing will enable market expansion into eight new cities, and the company wants to expand its geographical reach on a quarterly basis. Magenta stated that it is developing an ecosystem strategy to deliver solutions to all participants, including customers, driver-partners, OEMs, and financiers.
Lewis stated that Magenta planned to grow 5X and is nearly there, adding that the company focuses on sustainable and profitable growth. Decarbonizing last-mile delivery is becoming increasingly crucial in India, where the e-commerce sector is predicted to quadruple by 2030, necessitating the deployment of a large number of new vehicles this decade, according to Sashi Mukundan, President, bp India and senior vice president, bp.
“This is bp’s first venture-led entry into India’s last-mile delivery market and our second in India’s mobility sector. We see this investment as an opportunity to further advance decarbonizing mobility solutions,” he said.
With India setting an ambitious 2030 target for the complete transition to EVs for e-commerce, delivery, and transport logistics service providers, he believes Magenta’s operations will help decarbonize Indian cities while meeting demand in the fast-growing e-commerce delivery industry.
According to the statement, BP is heavily investing in five transition growth engines that will aid in the delivery of its net zero ambitions, including the BP PULSETM electric vehicle infrastructure, which is already operational in nine countries across the world.
“Being one of the early entrants in the charging infrastructure space, the company (Magenta) is uniquely positioned to stitch an end-to-end solution to enable businesses to go electric in their middle and last mile operations. “In terms of market opportunity, there are strong tailwinds supporting EV adoption by large customers in their supply chain both for economic and sustainability reasons,” said Shyamsundar Gurumoorthy, Managing Director and Co-Head of Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure.
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Content Credit: The Energyworld.com
