IIT Madras startup Plugzmart raises Rs 3.63Cr led by BlueHill Capital, others

An Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) incubates smart electronic vehicle (EV) charger startup, Plugzmart has raised Rs 3.63 crore in a seed funding round led by VC BlueHill Capital and followed by investors such as Meera Reddy of SKCL, Kartik Meyyappan, L. Ramkumar, Sivadas Raghava and Shailaja Reddy.

The startup plans to use the raised capital for research and development (R&D) and to scale up the teams to meet large orders.

Founded by Vivek Samaynathan and Ragavendra Ravichandran, Plugzmart is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of electric vehicle chargers and SAAS provider of electric charging infrastructure.

The smart chargers developed by Plugzmart include a software-based EV charging system designed to meet the growing demand in the charging infrastructure in India.

An algorithm will optimally schedule charging to maximize the usage of available grid resources for charging EVs and maximize the number of EVs that can be connected to the grid while enhancing grid stability.

According to the company's statement, the key factors that differentiate IIT-M's Plugzmart from existing technologies are- they indigenously design and manufacture the EV charge controllers, are connected to the cloud for round-the-clock access through the mobile application, collect data from the vehicle to analyse the performance of the battery and its charging cycle along with the data on energy demand to effectively balance the load, and the controller is compatible with any charger.

“A majority of EV chargers in India today are being imported and are of low quality. As EV adoption increases both on the consumer and commercial sides, the requirement for chargers from manufacturers of 2, 3 & 4 Wheelers and Charge Point Operators is going to scale rapidly and with this round of funding we are well positioned to fulfil this demand," said Ragavendra Ravichandran said.

Commenting on the investment, Manu Iyer, Partner, BlueHill Capital, said, “As the EV segment in India takes off, we are excited to partner with and invest in Plugzmart, and add to our EV portfolio. There is a gaping hole in the Made-in-India, safe and quality EV charger hardware+software market which we believe can be addressed by Plugzmart. Plugzmart is an exciting startup in the greenfield industry and we are glad to back the team to achieve new heights.”

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