When electric Vehicles were not the talk of the town, Zypp Electric, a prominent last-mile delivery fleet management firm, leaped into the EV-based ecosystem. Akash Gupta and Rashi Agarwal founded the electric scooter provider firm in 2017 with the goal of assisting India in embracing sustainable transportation and reducing pollution.
“Solving the problem of pollution was the largest opportunity I found in this business. Being an avid traveler, I saw clean air in many countries. But in India, people talk about pollution every day. So, other countries like the US, and China were picking up electric vehicles. Then I thought of bringing it to India so that we can give people a clear mobility option. Hence, I left my high-paying job and started this business from ground zero,” Akash Gupta said.
Zypp Electric’s business model is totally innovative in India and has never existed before, he said, adding that the firm is decarbonizing last-mile delivery as a full-stack EV service provider.
“We get hold of the vehicles from an OEM who manufactures them, then we put our IoT tech on top of those vehicles. We get financiers to buy these vehicles for us. After this, we find drivers for these bikes. And then we connect with customers like Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon, Flipkart, or Big Basket for deliveries to them. So such a full stack approach never existed which is why our business model is very different,” the Zypp Electric cofounder told Livemint.
In addition, the business established a core experimental team to train and supervise drivers. According to Akash Gupta, the company helps the lives of low-income individuals who are employed as drivers at Zypp Electric after a rigorous onboarding procedure.
“We give them the industry’s best insurance service, an amount of ₹1 lakh for their personal well-being, doctors’ on-call support, and Yoga support. On a click of a button, they get service of the bike, a maintenance ticket, charging or maintenance or swapping support, extra money as credit, and a lot of other things,” he added.
Zypp Electric was created at a period when there were no EVs, charging stations, the correct sort of batteries, or expertise to ride electric scooters, according to Akash Gupta, while discussing the hurdles the firm has experienced thus far.
“Financing was a big issue“, he asserted. “People were not able to finance a startup doing electric vehicles. But we created layers of financing and OEMs who want to work with us,” the company’s co-founder said.
Zypp Electric now has roughly 15,000 EVs on the road, but the business plans to deploy 200,000 electric cars in the next two years and 500,000 EVs in the following 3.5 years, he said.
Furthermore, Akash Gupta told Livemint that the company plans to offer Zypp Electric scooters in five additional locations before the end of the year. They now provide the service in two cities.
“We can launch in a few global geographies also if we do this well in India. So our vision is to continue to expand and decarbonize last-mile deliveries, as much as we can. Currently, we are planning to hit half a million e-scooters in the next 3.5 years. I am able to scale it to almost 1000+ crore business,” he said.
Zypp Electric made 50 lakhs in sales in its first year, and the cofounder believes the firm will enter the 500 crore club this year.
