Electric motorcycle startup Raptee receives $3 million in pre-Series A round led by Bluehill Capital

Raptee, a premium EV motorcycle startup, has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round led by VC fund Bluehill Capital in all-equity funding, the company announced on Tuesday, September 26.

Other investors, like Eugene Mayne, founder and CEO of Tristar Global (UAE); Lakshmi Narayanan, former CEO of Cognizant; Ramesh Kannan, managing director, Kaynes Technology; Chandu Nair, director, Shankara Building Products; and other high-net individuals (HNIs) from India and the UAE, also participated in the round.

Raptee will use the funding to augment the manufacturing facility, acquire machinery and tools for the soon-to-be-launched motorcycle, and scale up the team, the company said.

"Having evaluated over 30 EV OEMs in India and invested deeply in the EV and clean-tech ecosystem in India, we are impressed by Raptee’s cutting-edge tech and excited to partner with them on their journey. We believe Raptee’s motorcycles will change the face of EV 2-wheelers in India," said Manu Iyer, CEO & Partner, Bluehill Capital.

Electric motorcycle manufacturer Raptee was founded in 2019 by four engineers from Chennai who have worked with likes of Tesla, Wipro, and Royal Enfield. Over the last 12 months, Raptee’s team size has grown to more than 50 people.

In March this year, Raptee became the only OEM to receive a grant from ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India), the certifying authority for automobiles in India, to design and develop the high-voltage powertrain. The company's first motorcycle is expected to debut in early 2024, with two experience centres in Chennai and Bangalore. The company plans to expand to eight more cities by the end of the first year.

In the EV startup space, Quantum Energy, an electric vehicle (EV) startup specialising in the design, development, manufacturing, and sales of electric scooters, recently partnered with tech-enabled logistics company Bluwheelz to work on the last-mile logistics landscape. 

Before that, Taiwan-headquartered multinational technology corporation Acer and Mumbai-based electric mobility company eBikeGo joined hands and rolled out Acer MUVI-125-4G, an electric two-wheeler designed for urban commuters.