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The EV Game Changer | Akash Gupta @ Zypp Electric
175 Plays2 years ago
The country’s transportation sector is on the verge of a phenomenal change. Courtesy of EV-tech!
In this episode of Founder Thesis, Akshay Datt speaks with Akash Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Zypp Electric, India’s leading B2B Delivery and shared mobility app.
After an extensive experience in the corporate sector, Akash started his entrepreneurial journey in 2017 with Mobycy, an electric rental mobility company for commuters. But thanks to the rapid growth in last-mile delivery, Mobycy soon transitioned into an EV logistics company. With Zypp Electric, he aims to make last-mile delivery more affordable, time-saving and gentle on the environment.
Tune in to this episode to hear Akash speak about how Zypp Electric is tirelessly working towards creating an EV ecosystem in India.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Shoutout
00:00:00
Speaker
Before we start today's episode, I want to give a quick shout out to Zencaster, which is a podcaster's best friend. Trust me when I tell you this, Zencaster is like a Shopify for podcasters. It's all you need to get up and running as a podcaster. And the best thing about Zencaster is that you get so much stuff for free. If you are planning to check out the platform, then please show your support for the founder thesis podcast by using this link, zen.ai slash founder thesis.
00:00:27
Speaker
That's zen.ai slash founder thesis.
Meet Akash Gupta, CEO of Zip Electric
00:00:32
Speaker
Hi, Akshay. I'm Akash Gupta. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Zip Electric. Take a minute.
Tech Shifts and Electric Vehicles
00:00:42
Speaker
Every time there's a massive technology shift in an industry it leads to a new set of dominant players. There was a time when radio was the prominent method of broadcast and there were large radio companies and then the shift to television happened and surprisingly the large radio companies are not companies that people would even know about today.
00:01:08
Speaker
It's the television companies which became large and then they got disrupted with the shift to streaming. A similar shift is currently happening in the automotive sector where electric vehicles are coming in and replacing traditional gas burning vehicles. And this is leading to the next generation of large companies getting
Akash Gupta's Journey to Entrepreneurship
00:01:29
Speaker
formed. And one of those large companies is going to be Zip Electric.
00:01:33
Speaker
Akash Gupta started Zip Electric as an electric mobility solution for commuters to go from a metro station to their office or like the last mile connectivity between public transport and the office location.
00:01:49
Speaker
he pivoted and became a logistics company. Today, Zip Electric is present in more than 10 cities, doing 10,000 orders on a daily basis. And this is a testament to the value proposition of going electric. And this is a fascinating conversation with Akash about his journey from being in an offline sales role with Airtel and then moving into the digital world with Snapteel and then Moby Quick before starting Zip.
00:02:17
Speaker
Here's Akash talking about just before he decided to become a founder while he was heading marketing for Moby Quick. Work was never a concern. I was always a hard worker, which never deterred me. You know, if I have to spend 18 hours on a problem, I will spend that. Nobody would ask me to do that. But then, you know, spending so much time for, you know, someone else or building another company, I thought that possibly I can build of my own.
00:02:42
Speaker
And if not now, then man, right? I can continue to say I will want built. Now this, you know, was a huge transition from working in a corporate world to starting up. You straight away go down to zero and then you need to build your equity again, which has a huge risk of failure because you have a good equity. If you fail, you have to restart with a failure,
Exploring Startup Ideas and Finding Mobility
00:03:02
Speaker
which is very tough. But then the calling was stronger that you have to do this. And which is why I was always on a lookout of a lot of ideas.
00:03:10
Speaker
I wanted to, you know, experience things. What is happening worldwide? What is India? How we can solve the major problems, right? So I worked on a bunch of ideas. Actually, if you ask me before starting up also, I worked on a few ideas just as a project that if I want to do something, then will it be in edtech? So I created an edtech pitch. I went to a few schools, colleges to pitch something. Then I worked into fashion space.
00:03:35
Speaker
you know, something in the fashion space where, in fact, my co-founder today and my wife, Rashi, she started a company called Lesflant. And this is, I really thought which was behind both of us thinking, but she was the front face and she was the execution. I was kind of, you know, testing out the waters of a startup with her, with a Lesflant, but obviously I was fully working at my job. But what did you identify as like, you know, the gap, so to say? Sure.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, so the gap that I identified was last mile mobility, right? I saw that people want to go from point A to point B, but every time if they take out their car and travel that distance, it's a lot of traffic and a lot of pollution creation happening. If there are small electric vehicles available for people to go for these distances, which are shared vehicles rather than old vehicles, it could be super exciting.
Building Zip Electric from Concept to Launch
00:04:28
Speaker
some rages like this happening in the larger world also right in foreign countries also some of this has started you know happening right and which is what like a bike sale like Rapido but with EVs and with sale right yeah so when this came along in my head you know frankly I could not sleep for a few days right I was just you know goobying I was you know looking at the Indian market I was looking at mobility I was
00:04:54
Speaker
looking at EVs, sustainability cycles, bunch of things, technology, globe. So yeah, three, four nights were crazy. And then I decided that now is the time. This has to be done an app driven shared mobility solution. So yeah. And then I had to pull along Rashi, right? Who's my co-founder. She was traveling at that time. And that's actually when I got a lot more time to myself.
00:05:16
Speaker
where I could give a lot of time to think, internalize. And when this came along, it took almost a month for me to convince her first, that this could be exciting. So, we are very different as personalities. Why? Because I am more of the vision. And she will be the one who has the vision.
00:05:36
Speaker
I am the insane guy and she will bring the sanity. And that's how the match is happening. And that's how there's sanity in the business for the last four and a half years also, I can say. So this was, I guess, like Yulu, Bounds, these are all similar businesses starting up around that time only, right? Around that time.
00:05:56
Speaker
You know, so you actually launched three, four months after us. So it was that early when we decided and we started building the app, you know, as soon as this thought came in, I hired a few engineers and then we started. But this was such a upfront investment idea. Like this would mean a lot of upfront investment. So like you were you were ready for like going out raising funds first or like how did you think you would build it?
00:06:22
Speaker
I mean, I had invested my initial capital. I was ready to invest some of my initial capital about 25 lakhs, right? Which to get the prototype out, to get the technology out, to get the few market testing products out. And we did a lot of intensive customer research. We talked to a lot of users. We went to metro stations. We went to colleges. We asked people around that, would you want something like this?
00:06:45
Speaker
It was a coherent yes, right? Because while you pay for a cab for 100 bucks, if you get a bike to travel from point A to point B for 20 bucks, it's a game changer, right? And without any weight, without any traffic. So that was super exciting as an opportunity, what I feel, you know. And how would you get the inventory of bikes? Like, what was your plan? A cycle and a smart lock and the technology, you know, 100 bikes.
00:07:12
Speaker
plus the tech, plus the app, plus the initial team was okay to run the business for six months, six to 12 months with the 45 lakhs initially, which is what we invested. So you're talking of e-bikes or like the regular bikes? Normal cycles. So we started with normal cycles. Very normal cycles is what we started with. When we got smart locks placed on them, we created an app which could unlock those smart locks.
Launch and Initial Success of Zip Electric
00:07:39
Speaker
I went to the government, I spoke to them, they tied up that yes, we will give you the metro stations, we'll give you the bus stands, right? We got that contract in Gurgaon. And then we got a super media mileage when we launched, you know, it came at the times of India and a bunch of other delis, right? Coming from marketing.
00:07:57
Speaker
could do that, right? And yeah, it picked up really well. People got a great acceptance because we launched sometime in November, while the thought came in in May, we launched it in November. And this was a good winter time when people like to cycle also, people wanted something new, you know, and exciting and app driven. And good for health also, like you're getting a workout.
00:08:17
Speaker
Correct. So it picked up very well. I want to know a little bit, what was the model like fixed pickup, fixed drop points or like pickup from fixed points and drop anywhere? No, pickup and drop points were initially not fixed. But then within a month or so we realized that we need to fix them. We created geofences where people could pick up from and drop off to.
00:08:37
Speaker
How would you prevent against fraud, like someone stealing the cycle? Or what kind of security did you have in place? So we created a pure tech platform where people would do a sign-up, they would do their KYC, they will put up their Aadhaar card or PAN card and once that gets validated with their selfies when they are able to scan the bike and
Transition to Electric Scooters and Expansion
00:09:00
Speaker
unlock the bike.
00:09:00
Speaker
We had a very small deposit, which we, you know, after 40, 45 days, we knocked it off to zero because it obviously is always a concern for people where deposit. So we knocked the deposit off, but then our KYC was the key, you know, element and our markings were secured, usually secured, but at least the geofences were, there was a patrolling officer within the team who would keep checking.
00:09:20
Speaker
And since all these bikes had a GPS tracker in them, we had the visibility of them on a dashboard. So if anything goes outside of geofence, there's an alert that will come out. It was always working fine. And the lock was like an IoT lock. It was full IoT enabled smart lock. So that's how the journey of MoBC was the first brand name that we started with. And then we realized that the Indian audience is more cut out for EVs.
00:09:47
Speaker
then cycles while winters the cycle works but then not everyone would hook on to fitness or you know cycles all the time going to office coming back from there especially if you sweat and then you reach the office sweaty correct so within you know a few months we introduced electric scooters and to bring more zinc to the electric scooters we started calling them zip that MobySea platform which is MobySea the thought was mobile cycles
00:10:13
Speaker
But now you have a zip, which is an electric scooter also on the movie C platform. That's how zip came into the picture just to bring people's head around that there's something new, the new icon and scooters were a different ballgame altogether because now the audience was different. The stickability was different and the distances were longer. Obviously the investment was also bigger, but then we thought that this is a better problem to solve, right? And hence, you know, within six to eight months, we slowly started
00:10:39
Speaker
and kind of pivoted to electric scooter. How did you fund electric scooter acquisition? So electric scooter acquisition funding was by that time we had raised some capital. After doing our product market and the initial 100,000 users that we could get on the app, we then got some funds. The initial check came in from a seed investor, which also got us to put some 40-50 scooters on round. And there also we did a partnership with a company
00:11:06
Speaker
which gave us the scooters because they also wanted to test it out so scooter OEM came along and they said that we'll give you some 25-30 scooters you put them out in the market and then let's figure it out that's how you know the first few scooters came along then we had some capital we bought a few more but then when we wanted to get more we said that that's when we launched a very interesting program called a zip entrepreneur program
00:11:27
Speaker
Right. So, so we didn't have money to go from 50 to 200 kutas ourselves, but then we launched a very interesting thought, which came along with one of the discussions within the team that let's ask people to invest. We have got a thousand users. Let's ask everyone that do you want to buy a scooter and put it on our platform and we pay you a monthly rental. Right. So that's how something like that happened.
00:11:50
Speaker
where a lot of people came forward and they started investing in scooters. From 50 to 200, we reached in about three to four months. Everything shows to people, everything has a light, and this gave us new wings that we can now have people to invest in. We were giving a healthy return to them, which was attractive, which is why they came in and they did this for us.
00:12:10
Speaker
How much would you earn on a scooter through rentals on one day? Like how many rides would that scooter be good for? Like what kind of operationally what were you earning on one scooter in a day? On one scooter typically we were earning at about 100 rupees a day at that time. Our scooters were costing at about 50,000 at that time.
00:12:29
Speaker
We were asking people to invest 50,000 and then we were paying them almost 1,900 to 2,000 rupees per month, which is what we were paying them. And this was for 36 months. So on a 50,000 investment, you would get 72,000 and also that is coming to you monthly, which means that since it's coming to you month, it's almost a 20-25% return. Yeah, on an XIRR basis. So people found it attractive.
00:12:53
Speaker
you know, a lot of H&I is invested into it, a lot of corporate people who are working invested into it, a lot of my friends invested into it. So that kept expanding. And that gave us a good feeler that we don't have to actually raise equity every time we want to deploy more scooters. People would want to invest in this new alternative platform of investment.
Focus on EV Logistics and Partnerships
00:13:13
Speaker
And after 36 months, when you then this scooter becomes yours, what happens then?
00:13:18
Speaker
After 36 months, we take the scooter at a pre-decided value. Roughly 10% residual value is what we offer them and then we buy the scooter. And what did it cost you in terms of maintenance and the electric bill because you would charge them, right? So our match was that since we were making about $3,000, our cost was $2,000. And then the operational expenses were, again, $500, $600. So we were kind of
00:13:44
Speaker
300-400 was the balance that we were making which is something that we could always think that you know today we are charging 100 rupees a day tomorrow we can always do 150 rupees a day so that you know margins will be made but let's build the market edition that was the end right so that's how you know we were you know doing this at that time it picked up you know very well and it continued to expand when did you make a pivot huh so so within this while we were doing this you know we were also getting a lot of businesses who were reaching out to us
00:14:14
Speaker
And by that time, we had got a heat of about 500 EVs, 500 to 700 EVs. Within Gurgaon only. Within Gurgaon only. And through this asset-like platform of investors coming into investing.
00:14:26
Speaker
Now large brands started coming to us like Zamato or Amazon or BigBasket would come to us and say that we also have plans to go electric. Can you deploy EVs for us? Now there were two kinds of customers. One was that they said that we don't want the vehicles, we want you to
00:14:45
Speaker
get the vehicles and the drivers so that you can deliver using them, right? So which was a slightly different model than what we were doing, where we were just pure play rental here, it was a pure play logistics play, right? So Zamato and people like Zamato were saying that, can you give us only bikes, right? So two customers were coming. One wanted only the bikes. The second one wanted the full total logistics services.
00:15:09
Speaker
Now while we were doing both of those things at that time, right, we started doing the logistics also because Amazon and big basket were trade brands to work with. We could not say no. We at least said that and it was a big debate within us, right, as a management team and the core team. We said that should we ever think of managing drivers also because that's a very different time. We spoke to our investors also at that time and they were also not confident that why, you know, we should do this.
00:15:33
Speaker
So at that time, but then since the opportunity was attractive, we said that we will do a small pilot of 3040 bikes. We'll manage 3040 drivers in one or two hubs, a small pilot to run the show. We did that, this was December, November, December of 19 when we were doing this.
00:15:51
Speaker
I did this. How did you onboard the drivers and was it on payroll or was it like gig workers, paper delivery? They were gig workers. They were gig workers, right? We started on a gig model because we learned it from the market that gig model always works for them to drive more, you know, and do more business. And this business, since we were also getting paid like a gig model where when we deliver, we get our, we earn. So we kind of build that. We hired a few folks.
00:16:17
Speaker
from the industry who were in the logistics side. And he said that you guys build a team, you guys run the show and and show us that you know, the EB works, right? So we were essentially solving the problems of EB because logistics was solved by so many people, but EB adoption was something which is not solved.
00:16:34
Speaker
And our interest was to solve the logistics side of things, sorry, the ED side of things that how to get this driver educated, how to get the batteries, how to get the charging, how to build the infrastructure, what vehicle will work for logistics, those were the things that we were, you know, looking to solve. And we continue to focus on those, right? We then, you know, when we started with Amazon with basket, there were 2020 odd drivers that they were looking for, we put
00:16:57
Speaker
those guys, we ran it for a couple of months, constantly intervened on the, you know, the infra side of things to improve that. And yes, they also started liking what we were doing, right? And they were now getting confidence that yes, EV works.
Impact of COVID-19 and Rapid Expansion
00:17:10
Speaker
And there's a player who came forward and who's kind of giving us a path to EV adoption, which is something which was on the radar for us.
00:17:16
Speaker
Right now, when this started happening, then there was no. So, so then, you know, every month they were saying that, can you double more hubs, right? Can you expand? Can you launch Gurdhav from Gurdhav to Noida, to Delhi, they were on our head now that you've done one or two hubs. Well, just continue to expand.
00:17:37
Speaker
And this is where we kind of took that strong call that let's focus on one business at the moment. Rather than running two ships is where it has a business to focus on one and which was not logistics. So we continue to build that. Suddenly March, April came in and COVID came forward.
00:17:54
Speaker
Right. So it was a big, big, big, you know, I think a dampener which suddenly came in that the business will come to a standstill. But then we quickly realized that essentials is a big story. That delivery is what we are doing. Government is pro essentials. That's the only way people will survive.
00:18:10
Speaker
So while we were doing Amazon Big Basket, now there were some 20 more customers who came forward and they said that we want your EV led delivery solution. There was Modern Bazaar, SOTY Supermarket, there was Spencer's, Easy Day, a bunch of customers came along and we didn't say no to it. Thanks to my team who stood on ground. They said that come what may, we are here to make this happen.
00:18:33
Speaker
and we stood with them and then we, you know, build better tech around this, better management of drivers around this, you know, made products which are suited only for small businesses also, you know, which is like pick and drop option, right? So our tech team also came forward during COVID time and they built some interesting products and we launched them, right? So we continue to expand, you know, and yeah, so now I think
00:18:59
Speaker
where we stand is almost like the largest EV logistics player with close to 2000 vehicles deployed already, growing to 5000 over the next two months. So that's where we stand on the EV logistics side, which is EV plus driver business.
00:19:14
Speaker
And then we also have our EV-only business, which is also back, where people would want to rent out vehicles.
Recent Funding and Revenue Growth
00:19:21
Speaker
We are now allowing the delivery executive to rent out vehicles also. Like Zomato. Yeah, the initial of that. So that we complete the full EV story for anyone to go electric. We are the accelerating path. We are the ones who are enabling them to go electric. We know the tech. We know the batteries. We know the infrastructure. We know the vehicle. We know the management of these fleet better than anyone else.
00:19:44
Speaker
And this is the offering that we have. We will take you to EV. You don't have to build your own fleet, right? Is what we do. And yeah, I mean, recently closed the next round also in that lens, you know, for fueling from the 1,500, 2,000 vehicles to possibly 15,000 vehicles now over the next 12 months. That's the roadmap that we are on. How much did you raise recently? The most recent round? We raised close to 7 million, right? Including mostly equity, right? 90% equity and a bit of debt.
00:20:13
Speaker
So when pandemic hit, what were the number of vehicles you were at? When pandemic had hit, we were at about 300. So from 300, today you are at 1500, like a 5x. Almost a 7x jump in a year. Amazing.
00:20:29
Speaker
Oh yeah, if you talk about revenues, they have grown from, they've grown 30X essentially in the last few months. Is it that your earning per scooter has also increased or is it just because there are more scooters? It is both. You know, earning per scooter has increased much more and the count of scooters obviously. What is the economics of your earning per scooter in this model now?
00:20:52
Speaker
Also, in this model, typically we earn close to $20,000 per vehicle. That's the revenue that comes to us per month. And then we pay to the delivery schedule close to $13,000, $14,000 he takes after deduction of the rental. And then there is an additional expense of about $1,000, which is operations. So the balance of $5,000 is what we essentially can say if the bike is utilized.
00:21:15
Speaker
So how do you charge customers? Do you charge per delivery or like a fixed rental? Both. So we have both the options. Mostly we like to get a fixed rental for the EV plus driver as a service where it is close to 700 per day or more depending on the number of deliveries that go beyond the certain milestone that we offer them.
00:21:36
Speaker
Otherwise, a few of the large customers. 700 includes both EV and driver. Yeah. There's no extra incentive for the driver based on some target or something. There is. So this is for X number of deliveries. If we go beyond X, then we get more. And he also gets more. That is one. Plus, there are some customers who are big enough, they have enough orders. There we charge on a paper delivery model also.
00:22:02
Speaker
But the idea is to get the driver happy, to get the match right for the vehicle, to utilize it much more. Because the good part is, since the vehicle is ours, we can use it in the morning, we can use it in the night, we can use it in the daytime. It's all technical, right? So utilization sits on our shoulders. You can have more than one driver for a vehicle, like someone doing a morning shift, someone doing a night shift, stuff like that. We have that. We have that in our tech.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yes. Got
EV Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness
00:22:27
Speaker
it. Okay. And you pay a driver like a daily amount, like per day worked, or is it like per delivery meant? So it is mostly on a paper delivery model. But in some cases, in certain cases, we give them a fixed minimum guarantee also. So that motivates them for the number of hours that they log in. So like, you know, what is the lifespan of an EV vehicle? Okay.
00:22:54
Speaker
That's why electric vehicle typically if managed well, then it can own for seven to eight years. But the batteries would need one battery typically would last three to four years and then it'll need a change of life. Right. So essentially you'll need to invest 50% cost more to run it for eight years. But on a total cost of ownership, if you look at an EV versus a petrol bike, then it is roughly 30 to 40% cheaper. What is TCO? Sorry. Total cost of ownership.
00:23:22
Speaker
If you like to hear stories of founders, then we have tons of great stories from entrepreneurs who have built billion dollar businesses. Just search for the founder thesis podcast on any audio streaming app like Spotify, Ghana, Apple podcasts, and subscribe to the show. And what was the source of, I mean, you know, were companies like Hero and all making two-wheelers at that time? Or like, where were you sourcing them from?
00:23:52
Speaker
Yeah, so Hero was making, right? And there were many OEMs, right? So we tested almost seven to eight OEMs in our journey, right? The good part is that since we were expanding and with good volumes after the initial few months,
00:24:07
Speaker
And they were also expanding with very limited EV orders at that time. We became one of the biggest buyers for these OEMs. Whoever would give us the best price, the best quality and the best service, we would shift our tide towards them. And we had strong SLAs, strong contracts that we used to start signing up with the OEMs.
00:24:26
Speaker
So, we tied up with the largest OEMs with the right SLAs and that is what fueling our expansion. We have back-to-back investors who came to us and they lock in the money that we want to invest and we only get the return.
00:24:44
Speaker
pipe is already sorted. The pipe of EVs are already sorted, financing is sorted. Business, there's no dearth of business in what we are doing. Essentially, it's full of nationally, we can expand if you want. Today, we can grow 50X in the next 10 months given we push the button of expansion.
00:25:06
Speaker
And yeah, the only thing that we are solving for is the supply of the vehicles, right? That has to come forward, which is where we are also booking, you know, additional orders of next 5,000 scooters so that they, you know, 500 to 600 keep getting delivered every month. That is where we stand and we work with the best people now from the seven to eight, we now cut down to only two OEMs who give us the zip, you know, vehicle in the way that zip wants it with the right spec, right battery, right technology.
00:25:32
Speaker
So it's like a custom-made design for you. Yes, it is. So which OEMs do you source from currently, like the top two that you've identified? So I can name one, which is Hero as our biggest OEM. And how does it cost you 50,000? I mean, Ola Scooter is, I think, some 90,000 or something like that.
00:25:51
Speaker
Yeah, I know. So I think, so 50,000 was a cost at that time today, it will be slightly more because we go with, you know, better configuration. But still, you know, there's a huge government subsidy which comes along, right? That's one there's a good state subsidy also, which is coming along, right, which is bringing the people cost
00:26:11
Speaker
government is incentivizing the EV adoption from their side also. They care for EV as much as we care for EV, which is why we don't have to do any marketing. Our job is done with the right channels from the government side. So yeah, so that's how the cost. So there's a national subsidy, which brings a one lakh scooter down to about 60, 65. And then there's a state subsidy, which brings a 65 vehicle down to 50.
00:26:35
Speaker
Is there a configuration difference also between what you're currently procuring and what Ola is selling or broadly similar? There will be a little change because we don't go beyond a 50 km speed. That's good for our drivers. We don't have to race with anyone or showcase.
00:26:54
Speaker
We want something which is tech enabled, which is our technology enabled, customized for us, having the right sensors that we want, you know, in the vehicle and you know, rugged. We don't want a fancy cute looking bike. We want a rugged bike, which will last for the next.
00:27:08
Speaker
What kind of sensors do you require in the bike? We put a lot of them. We put the throttle sensor, the driver pattern sensor, the wheel sensor, the GPS tracker. What do each of these do? Just help me understand.
00:27:25
Speaker
So this is bringing more data and analytics into how we optimize the usage of vehicle better, how to utilize it better. So it gives us all those triggers that which vehicle will need maintenance now, which vehicle is running fine now, which needs to be driven well, which spare parts we need to collect, when to immobilize the vehicle, when to all of that is sitting in house.
00:27:47
Speaker
When to change the battery, when to charge the battery, all those things are technical. What exactly is like a throttle sensor or a driver seat sensor? What are these exactly? These are things which
00:28:02
Speaker
help us educate the driver better because EV is different, right? EV, if you just race like this, it will reduce the efficiency of the EV. There's an education that goes that EV has to be slowly, you know, grown to the speed and then it has to be optimized not at a full speed, but at a slow
Future Roadmap and Expansion Plans
00:28:18
Speaker
speed. So that is a throttle sensor, which is part of the education process. So that sensor tells you that how much the driver is throttling. Okay. What else? What are the other sensors like?
00:28:29
Speaker
The other sense is, so we have all the data coming in from the battery, the BMS, you know, in terms of the temperature, in terms of state of charge, state of health, how many cycles the batteries have driven, when to charge it, how much range is left in the battery. Because see, a battery has a number of cycles, right? If you charge it daily three times a day, you are actually killing the battery, which is why we incentivize the guys to charge it at the right time.
00:28:54
Speaker
not just charging it every day. So what do you see as your roadmap? You know, where would you be in, say, 2025? Okay. So 2025, I think we would possibly be the largest EV as a service company in the country and beyond. You know, we might possibly be in a few more countries, right? By 2025, we would surely be much beyond a unicorn, right?
00:29:20
Speaker
is what I can say and creating the right disruption. What are the problems that you are solving currently? In terms of to help the business scale, what are those challenges that are on your radar right now that these are the next few problems to solve?
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah, the biggest one see our mission of zip is mission zero emission, right? That's our tagline. And that's what we live by and thrive by within, you know, everyone works for that, right? And when we have that as a motor, then things are organically happening, you know, brands are all gallantly coming. Our tasks are organically aligned. Our focus is already aligned that we need to build the infra. We need to solve, you know, stuff. But yes, the biggest challenge, if you ask me, would be the supply, right? How these OEMs can pick up.
00:30:07
Speaker
to do more vehicles because we want a lot more and I think that the entire ecosystem of the OEM side has to build up strongly. Okay. What about charging infrastructure? Is that a problem today or not really? We are solving it at the moment ourselves, right? We have created our own charging swapping systems and we are, you know, putting them on ground ourselves because it's a chicken and egg, right? There are no large charging companies at the moment and it is
00:30:34
Speaker
We have a creative way in which we've solved it actually, right? And it is working very well. What is the way that you've solved it? Proprietary information. But you have like some rented kiosk type locations where you've put up like a charging station.
00:30:55
Speaker
We put up a lot of charging stations around the city. We put them up in our partner hubs also. We decentralize it in a lot more ways possible so that it gives driver comfort. A new city launch would essentially mean that you would first build a charging infrastructure in that city and then launch. That would be how you would expand.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah, but frankly, yeah, that is the right way to expand. And that is how we essentially do, right? But since ours is a hub and spoke model usually, right? So hubs become the partner hubs of our customers, which is a growth force or a big basket, which is usually, you know, we're at one hub, 40, 50 drivers can work. So I don't have to paint the city green, right? I can start from one portion of the city and then grow from there. Okay. And how many cities are you in today? We're in nine cities. Which all?
00:31:47
Speaker
Okay, so we are in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune. These are our new cities rather. And Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Khachibat, Faridabad have been our old cities.
Co-Founding Dynamics and Personal Insights
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay, got it. Cool, amazing. So I guess I don't have any further questions. I think we are more or less done with what? Yeah, okay, so one last question. So your
00:32:10
Speaker
You know, how is it different having a co-founder who's also your wife as opposed to most other startups where, you know, co-founders are like two guys who were together in college or something like that? Yeah. No, I think the way that we work is quite interesting, right? We have a
00:32:29
Speaker
great comfort factor with each other and also you know a lot of contradictory views which help the business is what I can say right while we are you know a couple but we think very differently right and that actually has helped us you know remain sane to build this business is what I can say right because as I said you know vanity plus sanity and humanity is what we are into right and then that's a good mix that's that's coming along
00:32:57
Speaker
But yeah, I think the only caveat is that it's only business that we are talking all the time, right? Because since we are both into this, we are just, you know, the life is all about business. The good thing is that sometimes when we meet the team folks, and we share a view, and then they say discussion about time.
Podcast Network and Host's Journey
00:33:18
Speaker
After we discuss again, you've got a new strategy which helps also essentially the business. But yeah, I mean, we are enjoying it quite a lot. If you like the Found A Thesis podcast, then do check out our other shows on subjects like marketing, technology, career advice, books, and drama. Visit the podium.in, that is, t-h-e-p-o-d-i-u-m.in for a complete list of all our shows.
00:33:49
Speaker
Before we end the episode, I want to share a bit about my journey as a podcaster. I started podcasting in 2020 and in the last two years, I've had the opportunity to interview more than 250 founders who are shaping India's future across sectors.
00:34:05
Speaker
If you also want to speak to the best minds in your field and build an enviable network, then you must consider becoming a podcaster.
Conclusion and Final Sponsor Endorsement
00:34:13
Speaker
And the first step to becoming a podcaster starts with Zencaster, which takes care of all the nuts and bolts of podcasting, from remote recording to editing to distribution and finally monetization.
00:34:26
Speaker
If you are planning to check out the platform, then please show your support for the founder thesis podcast by using this link zen.ai founder thesis. That's zen.ai founder thesis.