Magenta, a developer of electric mobility solutions, announced on Wednesday that it has concluded a Series A1 fundraising round with a USD 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 generated cash in fleet and regional expansion, as well as invest a portion of the funds in technological 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, serving 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 completed a Series A1 fundraising round, receiving USD 22 million (about Rs 180 crore) from two market significant investors: bp of the United Kingdom and an investment vehicle run by Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure. Lewis told PTI, "They are the two significant investors who have joined us." That is a strategic investment, not a pure investment, he stressed.
The new financing raises the company's overall investment 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 work 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 key milestone for the firm as we strive to expand on our solid foundations in the EV industry that we have established over the previous four years. This financing and backing will help us scale our tech-led electric transportation platform across the country, according to Lewis.
He stated that the firm would add another 150 electric cars in the last-mile delivery market in the next 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 development into eight new locations, and the firm wants to increase geographical reach on a quarterly basis.
Magenta stated that it is developing an ecosystem strategy to deliver solutions to all parties, including customers, driver partners, OEMs, and financiers.
Lewis stated that Magenta planned to expand 5X and is about there, adding that the firm focuses on sustainable and profitable growth.
Decarbonizing last-mile delivery is becoming increasingly crucial in India, where the e-commerce sector is predicted to double 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 industry, and our second venture-led foray into India's mobility sector. We see this investment as a chance to enhance decarbonizing mobility technologies, he says.
With India establishing an ambitious 2030 objective for the entire transition to EVs for e-commerce, delivery, and transport logistics service providers, he believes Magenta's operations can help decarbonize Indian cities while meeting demand in the fast-growing e-commerce delivery market.
According to the statement, BP is aggressively 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 first entries into the charging infrastructure area, the firm (Magenta) is well positioned to stitch together an end-to-end solution that will enable businesses to go electric in their middle and last mile activities.
According to Shyamsundar Gurumoorthy, Managing Director and Co-Head of Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure, there are significant tailwinds encouraging EV adoption by big clients in their supply chain for both economic and sustainability reasons.