Union Square Ventures (USV) and Prime Venture Partners Back REVOS to Create India’s Largest EV Charging Network for 2&3 Wheelers

Series A of US$ 4 Million marks USV’s first investment in India

REVOS to expand its IoT-enabled Operating System across 1 million EVs

Bengaluru, 2 September 2021: Union Square Ventures & Prime Venture Partners have jointly backed EV infrastructure startup REVOS with an investment of US$ 4 million in Series A to fund the wide expansion of its peer to peer EV charging network and Smart EV platform for two & three wheelers. The startup will use the fresh funds to deploy EV chargers across the country, and further strengthen its technology team. In the next three years, the company is planning to expand its charging network to 1 million chargers in 500 cities across India and other emerging markets and to power several million Two and Three Wheeler EVs.The startup will also hire aggressively across all business functions in the next few months.

Founded in 2017 by Jyotiranjan Harichandan and Mohit Yadav, REVOS stands for Revolutionary EV Operating Stack which is an AI-integrated IoT platform to make EVs smart, safe and connected. Pegged as the ‘Android for EVs’, the platform allows EV manufacturers to build smart mobility featureson top of the software developed by REVOS. Since its launch in 2019, REVOS has been deployed in 10,000 devices (EVs + chargers) in 30 OEMs across India, China, Vietnam, Nepal and Egypt. The company is planning to launch soon in Europe and other parts of SE Asia.

The REVOS platform is a groundbreaking patent-pending system designed to make EVs smart, safe, and connected. The modular and customizable REVOS platform can be easily integrated into any EV. The system enables each component of the EV to communicate with each other with the data being stored into the cloud through a live stream. The data is then aggregated and interpreted through machine learning into useful insights that the EV manufacturers can use to explore new business models, deliver quality service, and improve customer experience. The platform tracks, monitors and controls Motor Controller and Battery Management System and enables EVs to have connected features like on-bike navigation, diagnostics, smart alerts and anti-theft lock. The platform also comes with a convenient companion bike mobile app that drivers can use to receive smart alerts, send out emergency SOS messages and navigate to the nearest charging station. The platform can be integrated very seamlessly into existing processes and also improves the go-to-market timeline for the manufacturers.

REVOS is also piloting BOLT, a peer to peer charging infrastructure which will transform the way consumers charge their EVs and will provide the much needed support for EV adoption at scale. BOLT is a Made-in-India EVcharging network that consists of an IOT enabled charging point which is compatible with any portable charger that comes with all EVs in India and works with existing AC power supply at home and establishments. Anyone, and not just the EV owner, can buy & install BOLT to set up a charging point for drivers to use ubiquitously while also generating passive income and expanding the charging network while doing so. Drivers can locate the nearest charging point on the mobile app, scan through the QR code and use the charger on demand and pay per use. No additional infrastructure is required to install BOLT and it requires little to no maintenance. Several hundreds of BOLT chargers are in use in many cities across India and an upgraded version is set to be launched in the coming weeks.

The transition to electric mobility is a key global strategy for decarbonizing the transport sector. India is among a handful of countries that support the global EV30@30 campaign, which targets to have at least 30% new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. An accessible and robust network of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is an essential prerequisite to achieving this ambitious transition. According to an independent study conducted by the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF), the EV market in India will be worth USD 206 billion by 2030. Another report by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) projects that the Indian EV market will grow at a CAGR of 36 percent till 2026.

The charging infrastructure is the backbone of electric mobility and in the next decade as the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in India rise substantially, readily accessible charging away from one’s home (or one’s workplace) will be key to support EV growth.

REVOS charging infrastructure aims to fulfill this gap by building an “on-the-go” charging network which will make charging EVs as easy and convenient as charging your mobile phone today. Including this funding round, the company has raised a total of $4.5 million and has offices in Bangalore & Singapore.

Supporting Quotes:

Jyotiranjan, Cofounder, REVOS

We are thrilled to have the backing and trust from the leading names in the VC sector in India and the US. They share the same vision as ours that the key to increased adoption of EV vehicles is the ease of charging available for the user. By making it simple and ubiquitous, we want to do the same for the EV industry what the PCO box did for the telecom industry a few years ago. REVOS is not only creating the largest charging infrastructure to support EVs but also building a world class OS to make EVs smart, safe, connected and ready for the future.

Mohit Yadav, Cofounder, REVOS

This fundraiser is a very important step in our journey and we are thrilled to have the support and trust from the leading VCs in both the US and in India. Both USV and Prime have invested in startups powered by a strong user community and we believe that this will play a key role in how REVOS grows. We are focussed democratising the technology for EVs and chargers so that anyone can build a smart EV or participate in building the P2P charging network. We believe this will be key to large scale adoption of EVs in the future. We also plan to invest more energy into our developer SDK and APIs to make our stack the most developer friendly stack ever. Our stack currently supports various components of an EV made by different manufacturers and we envision a future where all these components can be swapped for others just as easily without worrying about the underlying complexity of integrating them.

Albert Wenger, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures

Globally we are at the beginning of a massive transition to EVs. It is crucial for rapidly growing economies such as India, China & Africa to dramatically accelerate EV adoption. To make this possible, two enabling technologies are required: an operating system (OS) and a charging network. We are excited to announce our investment in REVOS, which already has multiple OEMs licensing their OS and their BOLT charging network is expanding rapidly. REVOS marks USV’s first investment in India and we are thrilled to partner with Prime Venture Partners in this new journey.

Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners

The move to EV is essential and inevitable - and India runs on two/three wheelers. Anytime anywhere re-charging was pivotal in the ubiquitous penetration of mobiles in India - we believe REVOS is well positioned to trigger a similar inflexion in the EV market. In USV, we have a partner that has backed and helped create some of the most amazing tech companies of our generation and we’re delighted to have them join us in this journey.

About Prime Venture Partners

Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage VC fund managed by partners with deep experience both as entrepreneurs and operators. Led by Amit Somani, Sanjay Swamy & Shripati Acharya, the fund is focused on building disruptive product companies out of India, and addresses a much needed gap in the Indian startup ecosystem - by bringing a combination of first-hand entrepreneurial experience, operating expertise and meaningful capital. Prime is a low volume, high conviction, high support investor and believes in backing star teams with differentiated ideas. Prime has a rich portfolio of category creating companies including Quizizz, MyGate, MFine, MyGate, Dozee, NiYO, Sunstone Eduversity, KredX, WheelsEye and others. For more information, please visit www.primevp.in .