Anika Begay
Electric vehicle charging station startup Kazam is planning to expand beyond India, where it already has a significant market share, and enter Southeast Asia to gain first-mover advantage, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
The Bengaluru-based startup, with offices in Delhi and Pune and municipal administrators in 4,000 postal codes across India, is all set to debut in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The expansion is part of Kazam’s roadmap, which it outlined after closing a new $8 million Series A3 round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. The startup also plans to further penetrate the South Asian nation by establishing its presence in new cities and building fast chargers specifically for two- and three-wheeler electric vehicles, the segment that currently dominates the overall EV market in the country, Kazam co-founder and CEO Akshay Shekhar said in an interview.
Initially, Kazam plans to enter Southeast Asian markets through its existing customers. The startup already works with Petroliam Nasional Berhad (commonly called Petronas) in India. The Malaysian government-owned energy group will help Kazam enter its home country. Similarly, the startup is in talks with vehicle manufacturers to enter Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, and even African markets, including Kenya and Uganda, over time, the co-founder told TechCrunch.
The all-equity round also saw participation from Kazam’s existing investors Avaana Capital and Alteria Capital. The startup has raised $13 million to date.
The startup, which employs about 160 people, plans to hire product and development experts to strengthen the development of its fast chargers and expand interoperability in the market. It currently conducts R&D for its solutions in-house and designs the PCBs for its chargers natively. However, the startup outsources hardware manufacturing to limit its capex.
Kazam’s Backstory
During the COVID lockdown in 2020, Shekhar and his co-founder Vaibhav Tyagi (CTO) realized the lack of domestic charging infrastructure in India. The duo, who also had a successful YouTube channel reviewing electric vehicles, initially focused on two- and three-wheelers. After launching its operations in April 2021, the startup added integrated fleet businesses for its EV charging hardware and software.
“The biggest challenge for fleet operators was ensuring that all their vehicles were charged the next morning. Unexpected power outages, drivers unable to properly use chargers, and concerns about the authenticity of drivers and their vehicles were key challenges for them,” Shekhar told TechCrunch. “So, we solved all of that and Kazam quickly became a success.”
Soon after finding success with fleet operators, Kazam attracted logistics companies, e-commerce operators and automakers to its electric charging solutions. The startup developed EV chargers for various vehicles and software to provide telemetry and insights on available charging points and connectivity through a dashboard and payment support.
India’s top seven-eight vehicle manufacturers, two of the largest oil and gas companies and about 30 fleet companies use Kazam’s hardware and software solutions, the executive said. The startup has more than 25,000 charging points, which power 15 million kilometers per month and 2.5 million charging sessions per year.
The startup, which draws inspiration from US-based electric vehicle charging network provider ChargePoint, has a membership of major corporates including e-commerce platforms such as BigBasket and Flipkart, vehicle manufacturers such as Ather Energy, Bajaj, Hero MotoCorp and TVS, and logistics providers such as Lets Transport and Mahindra Logistics, among others.
While some of these companies specifically use Kazam’s charging management software, some of them use its charging stations. The startup also white labels its hardware so that certain manufacturers can sell it under their own brand. Kazam claims to have 75% to 80% of the entire three-wheeler EV charging market in India and a 40% share in the two-wheeler EV charging space through its own-branded and white-label chargers.
Kazam has worked closely with the Indian government to launch IS17017 as the national charging standard for light electric vehicles. It is also working with some automotive companies to launch an interoperable fast charging technology to charge vehicles in 15-20 minutes.
“We want to start digitizing right from the grid. And since we have already worked with vehicle OEMs [original equipment manufacturers]that part became very easy for us to integrate into the platform,” Shekhar said.
Last month, Google named Kazam among the Indian EV charging network providers to showcase two-wheeler charging spots in the country via Google Maps. This is an expansion of the feature launched in the US over five years ago, although the Indian version is the first to offer EV charging stations for two-wheelers. The startup also joined the open energy network Unified Energy Interface in April along with 19 other companies to offer interoperable EV charging.
Kazam reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $3.2 million in July and expects to hit $4.5-5 million ARR by the end of the year. It also aims to become EBITDA positive soon, Shekhar said.
