Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy in its Series C funding round backed by Hero MotorCorp has raised Rs 84 crore. The platform has received the latest investment after a gap of 14 months. In May last year, the round was led by Sachin Bansal who alone infused $32 million, the total investment stood at $51 million. Till now with the help of Binny Bansal and Tiger Global, the Bengaluru-based company has received an investment of $102 million to date.

The fresh capital will be used by Ather Energy to scale its operation in 20 cities by the end of 2021 and expand in cities like Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad by the end of October 2020. Ather Energy in 2016 has launched Ather S340 in Bengaluru which was its first fully-electric scooter. Since then, the startup has tried channels like leasing to drive demand. For the past two years the company has been setting up charging facilities to build charging infrastructures and its plan include setting up Ather Grid fast charging points across the country in next five years.

The company has recently partnered with CredR which is a used two-wheeler car startup, to have access to its two-wheeler exchange program. Under the exchange program which is currently operational in Chennai and Bengaluru, it allows the owner of a petrol-powered two-wheeler to exchange it for an electric two-wheeler. The company is planning of setting up a new manufacturing unit in Hosur, which will have capacity to produce 100,000 units annually.

The new investment has arrived at a time when electric vehicles has become a priority for mobility startups. Etergo an Amsterdam-based electric scooter manufacturer was acquired by Ola Electric to launch electric two-wheelers in India next year. Bounce an Accel-backed scooter rental platform is also planning to replace its existing stocks with electric two-wheelers.