Indian e-mobility firm Magenta Mobility has secured $22 million equity investment from bp ventures, the venture capital arm of United Kingdom-based oil and gas firm bp, and Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure, the Indian infrastructure arm managed by the United States-based investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Magenta Mobility said in a statement on Thursday the firm plans to expand its fleet to 4,000 three and four-wheel electric vehicles (EVs) across the country over the next year.

The capital will support the firm’s market expansion into eight additional cities across India in the next two years beyond strengthening its presence in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.

“This investment from bp ventures and Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure is a significant milestone for the company as we look to build on our strong foundations in the EV space over the last four years,” said Maxson Lewis, Founder and Managing Director of Magenta Mobility.

According to him, this investment and backing will catapult the firm in scaling its tech-led electric mobility platform across the country.

“Magenta Mobility was one of the pioneers of electric vehicle charging in India. We understand the pain points, limitations for EV adoption in commercial fleet operations and have developed technology/software solutions to address these issues,

“Today, with our solutions we are delivering for some of India’s largest and most successful companies,” he added.

Magenta Mobility is one of India’s largest electric mobility providers with more than 750 three- wheel EVs across seven cities providing electrified last mile delivery logistics.

The company operates 35 charging and parking hubs in these cities.

The company is working on an eco-system approach to provide solutions to all the participants – customers, driver partners, original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) and financiers.

The company works with some of the largest e-commerce, food and online delivery companies in the country.

“Decarbonizing the last mile is increasingly important in India as the e-commerce market is expected to grow fourfold by 2030, which will require the deployment of huge numbers of new vehicles this decade,” said Sashi Mukundan, Senior Vice President of bp India.

With the Indian government setting an ambitious 2030 target for the complete transition to EVs for e- commerce, delivery, and transport logistics service providers, he said Magenta Mobility through its operations will help decarbonize Indian cities whilst helping meet demand in the fast-growing e-commerce delivery industry.

“This is bp’s first venture-led entry into India’s last-mile delivery market and our second in India’s mobility sector. We are proud to be investing and partnering with Magenta Mobility, to support the company’s growth across India,

“We see this investment as an opportunity to further advance decarbonizing mobility solutions,” he added.

According to the statement, bp is investing heavily in five transition growth engines that will help drive its transition to an integrated energy company, and deliver its net zero plans, including BP PULSE TM electric vehicle infrastructure, which is already live in nine countries worldwide.

With more than 100 million online shoppers, and the government’s target of the electrification of e-commerce delivery and logistics by 2030, India is a key market for bp’s global electrification business, bp pulse.

Bp and Magenta Mobility will also collaborate on electric fleet management software.

Jio-bp – part of bp’s joint venture with Reliance – will be the exclusive EV charging partner for Magenta Mobility’s fleet.

Within few years of operations, Jio-bp has constructed and launched many of India’s largest EV fleet charging hubs along with hundreds of public charge points in various cities and major highways across the country.

Being one of the early entrants in the charging infrastructure space, Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure Managing Director and Co-Head Shyamsundar Gurumoorthy, said Magenta Mobility is uniquely positioned to stitch an end-to-end solution to enable businesses to go electric in their middle and last mile operations.

In terms of market opportunity, he said there are strong tailwinds supporting EV adoption by large customers in their supply chain both for economic and sustainability reasons.

“We believe that Magenta Mobility will play a leadership role in scaling this industry, consolidate its market-leading position and support growth of sustainable logistics,” he added.

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