Chennai-based EV startup Raptee.HV in talks to raise ₹150 crore in private funding

Chennai-based electric vehicle manufacturer Raptee.HV is currently in the final stages of closing a ₹150-crore funding round. According to Co-Founder and CEO Dinesh Arjun, the company expects to complete the fundraise from private equity and venture capital investors within the next 90 days.

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the company’s flagship experience centre in Chennai on Wednesday, Arjun noted that the fresh capital will support expansion plans, scale up production, and address operating expenditure challenges. The experience centre was inaugurated virtually by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay. Additionally, the EV startup is a beneficiary of ₹25 crore in capital support from the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

Raptee.HV currently manufactures around 100 vehicles per month at its facility in Chennai. This production capacity is expected to increase to approximately 300 vehicles a month by March. The company plans to initially scale up production at its existing facility, which can eventually support up to 1,500 units.

However, Arjun pointed out that being located within the city poses logistical challenges as production volumes increase. To address this, the company plans to shift operations to a new 40-acre site allocated by the State government at Cheyyar. Construction on the site is likely to start towards the end of FY28, with production scheduled to commence in FY29. The proposed plant will be developed over a six-year period with the ultimate objective of scaling up capacity to 75,000 units a month.

The company currently sells two models of its electric motorcycles, the T30 and T30S. The T30S is priced at around ₹2.55 lakh on-road. Raptee plans to introduce additional variants over the next three to nine months, including a mass-market model and a proposed premium motorcycle positioned above its existing products, expected to be priced at approximately ₹3.55 lakh.

Beyond manufacturing and product expansion, the company is growing its retail footprint. Following Bengaluru and Chennai, Raptee plans to add experience centres in Coimbatore, Kochi, and Hyderabad. The company is also exploring international markets, including Sri Lanka, Brazil, and Turkey.

"The transition of an EV startup from early-stage manufacturing to large-scale commercial production requires careful capital allocation and operational planning. Raptee.HV's focus on securing ₹150 crore for capacity expansion and managing operating expenditures highlights the heavy capital requirements of the hardware sector. Moving manufacturing to a larger designated industrial site like Cheyyar in the long term is a practical step to mitigate logistical bottlenecks as production scales up." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes