The Turning Point [YourStory Media] - Why this entrepreneur decided to launch an EV startup?

Source: YourStory Media

Author: Apurva P.

The thought of providing affordable mobility for middle-class families led Harsh Vardhan Didwania to start up in the electric vehicles space. In January 2018, he launched Bhubhaneswar-based EV startup EeVe along with his father, JP Didwania.

“Since then we have already onboarded 52 dealers across the Eastern part of the country, in Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. We have sold more than 1,300 vehicles in these cities,” the founder says.

The #EV startup now offers four products: Xeniaa, 4U, Wind, and Your. Of this, two are in the Li-ion and two is in the lead-acid battery segment, Harsh Vardhan says.

The #EV startup plans to inaugurate a fully automated production unit with the capacity to produce 2.5 lakh vehicles per year by the end of FY21. It is also planning to expand sales and service to 250 cities across India by December 2020.

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[The Turning Point] Why this entrepreneur decided to launch an EV startup

Harsh Vardhan Didwania was always concerned about rising pollution, the depletion of non-renewable resources, and increase in the prices of fuel. The thought of providing affordable mobility for middle-class families led him to start up in the electric vehicles space. In January 2018, he launched Bhubaneswar-based EV startup EeVe along with his father, JP Didwania.

Startup Ideas:- The gig economy of street vendors and hawkers throws opportunities for FinTech startups for a win-win situation

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, there are 10 million street vendors in India, with Mumbai accounting for 250,000, Delhi has 450,000, Kolkata, more than 150,000, and Ahmedabad, 100,000. Most of them are immigrants or laid-off workers, work for an average 10–12 hours a day, and remain impoverished. In India, street vending makes up 14% of total (non-agricultural) urban informal employment.

These street vendors or hawkers require daily finance, which is now provided by nearby private money lenders at at an exorbitantly high interest rates as high as 10% daily. For example, a hawker requires Rs 1000 for the day, he gets Rs 900 in the morning after deducting that day’s interest. In the evening, he has to deposit Rs 1000 with the lender. This routine repeats everyday. There is also a rent for trolly used for business as well.

Covid times impacted these communities very hard. Govt announced a package where these small vendors will get a working capital loan of Rs 10000 with a moratorium of 1 yr.

So, there is a tremendous scope and market opportunity for startups to provide FinTech solutions to these micro retailers so that it is a win-win situation for both.

All the best!

Funding Alert: o9 Solutions startup raises an amount of $100 million from KKR, valuing it over $1 billion

Integrated business planning software startup o9 Solutions, Inc. recently stated that it has raised an amount of $100 million (around Rs 761 crore) from global investment firm KKR. KKR has chose a minority stake in o9 Solutions, valuing it over $1 billion.

The #startup aims to hire India-based talent in emerging technologies like #artificialintelligence, #machinelearning and other key technologies in the digital transformation space as well as expand its customer base in Asia.

o9 was put to use by Sanjiv Sidhu and Chakri Gottemukkala, both Indian Americans from Hyderabad.

Furthermore o9 has upto 500 employees globally, of which more than 350 are based in India. Its clients in India include different divisions of Aditya Birla group, Tata Group, and leading paint firms.

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o9 Solutions startup raises an amount of $100 M from KKR

Integrated business planning software startup o9 Solutions recently stated that it has raised an amount of $100 million (around Rs 761 crore) from global investment firm KKR. KKR has chose a minority stake in o9 Solutions, valuing it over $1 billion. The startup aims to hire India-based talent in emerging tech like artificial intelligence, machine...

EV Technology: AI breakthrough slashes EV battery testing time by 98 percent

Source:- Siliconrepublic.com

In the race to bring EVs to the masses, researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that could supercharge battery development.

A collaboration between Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Toyota Research Institute has led to the development of a new machine learning method that aims to overcome one of the biggest issues in the development of electric vehicles (EVs).

This bottleneck involved the evaluation time of EV batteries, where new technologies must be tested for months – or even years – to see how long they will last. However, in a paper published to Nature, the research team said its new #AI slashes the amount of time it takes to test #EV batteries by 98pc. While the focus of the study was on battery charge speed, it can be applied to other parts of battery development and even to non-energy technologies.

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AI breakthrough slashes EV battery testing time by 98pc

In the race to bring EVs to the masses, researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that could supercharge battery development. A collaboration between Stanford University, MIT and the Toyota Research Institute has led to the development of a new machine learning method that aims to overcome one of the biggest issues in the development of electric vehicles (EVs).