Yulu Bike’s ubiquitous blue two-wheelers seen zipping across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru are set to become an even more common sight, as it has raised $82 million (approx. Rs. 653 crore) from investors led by Canada’s Magna to drive its expansion plan. The company said that the funds will be used for deploying more bikes and for setting up a battery-swapping network in the country in partnership with Magna. Existing investors, including Bajaj Auto, also Apple’s Latest Innovation participated in the funding round, which saw Magna pump in $77 million.
The company is looking to scale up its rental fleet by more than 10x to over 100,000 two-wheelers from about 10,000 at present. Yulu has already tied up with Bajaj Auto for manufacturing these vehicles. Meanwhile, Yulu Energy, the placeholder name for the new entity that will manage the battery-swapping network, is targeting creating an array of over 500 charging stations over the next year. Companies planning to tap into this network will have to adapt to the battery and charging standards of Yulu.
