Electric Vehicle Platform Blive raises USD 100K from ah! Ventures Angel Platform and Marwari Angels

Blive, the Goa-based electric vehicle (EV) platform, has raised USD 100K as part of follow-on capital of Pre-Series A round from ah! Ventures Angel Platform and Marwari Angels. The company had raised funds, led by DNA Networks and other angel platforms earlier this year. This is ah! Ventures’ 78th investment (in 62 Startups) taking its total investment portfolio to INR 211 CR (~30 MN USD) with 11 exits till date (and 2 more exits are in process). This is ah! Ventures’s 15th investment in 2021 and we plan to do 50+ investments in 2021 totalling to INR 150+ CR (~20MN USD).

Founded in 2018 by Samarth Kholkar and Sandeep Mukherjee, BLive offers experiential, guided tours on electric bikes, aimed at promoting sustainable tourism in India. BLive is the official EV partner of Goa Tourism and has also partnered with hospitality firms such as Club Mahindra, Taj Hotels, Grand Hyatt, and Airbnb.

"At BLive, we want to remove the barriers for consumers to transition to Electric Mobility, whether it is with EV Tours where consumers get a first-hand experience of EVs or our EV Store, where we guide consumers towards ownership pf EVs through choice, expertise and experience."

"This year, we are looking at growing the EV tours to over 30+ locations and expand our EV portfolio of partner brands and retail footprint through both online and offline channels", stated Samarth Kholkar & Sandeep Mukherjee, co-founders, BLive. ”

Kholkar said in a short span of time, Blive EV Tours has expanded to top 15 cities across nine states in India and has completed over 13,000 eBike tours so far. Driven by an increase in domestic tourism post pandemic, BLive has seen three times growth in its eBike Tours.

In 2020, BLive launched India's first online EV marketplace offering brands of e-cycles and e-scooters. It recently started an exchange and upgrade programme, aimed at promoting the adoption of electric vehicles. Owners of petrol-driven two-wheelers can exchange their existing vehicles and upgrade to a new electric vehicle. The EV store has successfully delivered to customers in over 40+ Cities in less than 6 months of online store launch.

Atul Javeri, Venture Partner, ah! Ventures, said, "BLive is an interesting take on enjoying an electric bike ride while you are on a holiday and then buying one for your regular routine. The team has perfected this play by combining the business model of experience first and purchase later by tying up with leading resort chains and having its own online store. It’s a first ever such a model in the world and we are keen to support the growth of the company through these investments."

Commenting on the investment, Subhash Tripathi, Marwari Angels said, "Rising fuel prices, reduction in lithium-ion battery prices, and subsidies provided by government is accelerating the pace of adoption of EVs across India and globally. A century old Auto-motive industry is going through its biggest disruption, and new business models are emerging. Blive has picked two highly scalable business- EV Tours and EV marketplace. Both have been piloted and showing extremely promising growth path. We have also seen a strong pickup in EV theme recently from VC funds."

(Founded in 2019, Marwari Angels has 75+ investors in its network, mostly coming from Business community which includes- entrepreneurs, family business owners, distributors, retailer chain owners and manufacturers.)

Contact: Sandeep Mukherjee, sandeep@blive.co.in