Charging infrastructure company Exponent Energy raises $13 million in Series A funding

Exponent Energy, an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure company, has raised $13 million in its Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Existing institutional investors YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital & AdvantEdge VC also participated in the round.

"We'll scale up our production and network presence to 100 e-pump location points per city to deliver freedom and flexibility to our customers", founder Arun Vinayak said in a statement on August 17.

The Bengaluru-based startup also plans to utilise the funds to streamline its battery pack offering, e-pack, production and deliver more exponent-enabled EVs.

Founded in 2020 by Vinayak, a former Ather chief product officer, and Sanjay Byalal, Exponent Energy has built a battery pack and charging station that claims to unlock a 0 to 100 percent rapid charge within 15 minutes for EVs with any number of wheels and provide a 3,000 cycle life warranty.

The funding would allow the company to execute even faster and make 15-minute rapid charging the new normal, Vinayak said.

Earlier this month, Exponent Energy partnered with EV maker Altigreen to make rapid charging a reality for EV commercial vehicles. They unveiled an electric three-wheeler that rapidly charges from 0-100 percent in 15 minutes.

In December 2021, Exponent Energy raised $6 million in seed and Pre-Series A round from prominent investors such as the family office of Pawan Munjal, Chairman of Hero MotoCorp, Motherson Group, a global supplier of automotive components, along with YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital, AdvantEdge VC and a few angel investors.

"The need for enhancing EV battery performance, sustainability and most of all access and affordability has never been more pressing and so we are delighted to partner with Exponent to simplify energy for EVs," said Harsha Kumar, partner, Lightspeed.

A recent study by Meticulous Research has said that the electric vehicle charging stations market is expected to reach a value of $103.6 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 26.4 percent during the forecast period of 2021-2028.

Exponent competes with firms like Statiq, which has drawn plans to invest around Rs 40 crore in building EV charging infrastructure across residential projects.