Grip Invest has raised USD 8,00,000 (approximately Rs 6 crore) for Zypp Electric, which will help the electric vehicle logistics firm to scale up its fleet to 2,000 e-bikes, a release said on Tuesday. Zypp Electric, which serves as a last-mile delivery platform, has been leasing electric vehicles from Grip since June 2020.
The equipment leasing platform has facilitated leasing of assets worth more than Rs 100 crore so far and enabled over 40 companies to access a different source of growth capital. Grip Invest plans to help Zypp in reducing capex costs and focus on enhancing its network, it said. Savvy founders are understanding the importance of different forms of capital to meet the different requirements of their business. Especially for mobility businesses, leasing can be an incredible enabler for growth.
This is the decade for EV adoption and we are excited to already be working with 15 companies such as Zypp to lease electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, said Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder – CEO, Grip Invest. The funds raised have been used to lease close to 750 e-two-wheelers to the e-mobility startup to scale up its fleet to 2,000 e-bikes within 18 months, the release said. Zypp caters to both online and offline retailers.
Several global mobility companies have successfully leveraged the equipment leasing model to scale their business operations and further become more agile by converting capex into opex, said Rashi Agarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer, Zypp Electric. The asset financing approach makes us utilise the equity raised very efficiently. We were the first ones in the EV industry to start this almost three years back, Agarwal added.
She stated that the company facilitates close to 10,000 deliveries in a day. By leasing assets through Grip facilitated investments, we hope to further expand our operations and go deeper into 30 cities in the country while investing more in a seamless EV experience. Now we’re on a mission to go from 2000 to 100k EVs over the next few years, she said. The bikes leased by Grip and operated by Zypp have created job opportunities for 1,000 people and helped reduce 14,340 tonnes of CO2 over the last 13 months, said the release.
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