Hyderabad-based PURE EV raises VC funding of $35 mn

Hyderabad, July 10 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad on Wednesday said a start-up called PURE EV which was incubated by the institute has raised venture capital funding of $35 million (nearly Rs 240 crore).

The funding comes ahead of the start-up's commercial launch of high-speed and long-range scooters and motorcycles in October 2019 and early 2020 respectively.

The funding came from pharmaceuticals visionary V.C. Nannapaneni, IIT Hyderabad said in a statement.

PURE EV has also been developing a prototype of HVDC (high-voltage direct current) electric truck/bus lithium battery modules and intends to showcase them in 2020 for potential collaborations.

PURE EV is now looking to ramp up its EV manufacturing capacity to 2000 units per month by October 2019.

"PURE EV is a true testimony of how IIT Hyderabad is translating academic activities into mass scale commercial products through the support of the incubation centre," U.B. Desai, Founding Director, IIT Hyderabad, said in a statement.

"Co-location of PURE EV factory with IIT Hyderabad campus will open up new R&D collaborations with various faculty members and indeed it is analogous to how start-up industries emerged around Stanford University," Desai added.

PURE EV was founded in 2016 by Nishanth Dongari, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, and is led by Rohit Vadera, an alumnus of IIT Bombay.

PURE EV had recently launched four two-wheeler models. It aims to deploy over 10,000 electric vehicles on the roads during 2019-20.