Exponent Energy, a 15-mins EV rapid charging startup, raises $13M in a Series A round

Bengaluru-based EV energy startup Exponent Energy has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round as it is aiming to bring down the charging time from three hours to 15 minutes.

Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with participation from existing institutional investors, including YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital, and AdvantEdge VC. In December last year, the EV energy startup had raised $5 million from YourNest VC and existing investors.

Exponent Energy says it has developed a technology that can fully charge an electric vehicle in 15 minutes, much less than the regular time - at least three hours - they take to get fully charged.

Earlier this month, Exponent announced its first partnership with Altigreen, an Indian electric cargo vehicle manufacturer, launching the Exponent-enabled Altigreen neEV HD, a three-wheeler that both firms say can be fully charged, from 0% to 100%, in 15 minutes.

Arun Vinayak and Sanjay Byalal co-founded the startup in 2020. With this funding, Exponent will focus on scaling its proprietary charger and battery pack to 100 location points per city. It will start with Bengaluru and deliver more Exponent-enabled EVs.

The startup said EV makers have to install Exponent’s battery pack in their vehicles, and the end user can charge the vehicle using Exponent’s own charging stations to ensure rapid charging. As of now, It operates around 30 charging points across Bengaluru.

According to Arun, The current slow-charging stations are inefficient as they take up valuable real estate for three-four hours, taking the total cost to the end user up to Rs 20 to 24 per unit of electricity. Exponent aims to cut half of the cost to Rs 12-15 per unit, Arun said.

Unlike other batteries which can only be charged 1,000 times, Exponent battery pack can do 3,000 charging cycles without affecting the battery health, it claims.

The startup will have two revenue streams - one from selling battery packs to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the other from its charging network.

"Our technology already delivers a seamless charging experience, and with our vehicle partnership in place, we’ll scale-up our production and network presence to 100 e^pump location points per city to deliver freedom & flexibility to our customers," said Arun Vinayak.

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