The future of mobility is here, and it’s electric.

India is heading towards an EV revolution. To further strengthen this fast evolving EV ecosystem, we recently partnered with Startup India, the Indian federal government’s flagship programme for supporting startups and startup incubator iCreate. Together, we launched the Uber Green Mobility Innovation Challenge in September this year. This was designed as an innovation fund to support breakthrough ideas and drive the adoption of EVs across the country. 

We announced the five winners of the Challenge during an event on December 6. The winning startups are, Bodycast Innovators Pvt. Ltd., Virya Batteries Pvt. Ltd., RacEnergy, Kazam EV Tech Pvt. Ltd., and Emuron Technologies.

The Challenge attracted more than 150 entries from innovators and startups across India. We are supporting innovations to enable the EV ecosystem under three broad themes. First, helping domestic auto manufacturers to get their EV products to the market, especially two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Second, product innovations to improve battery life and address ‘range anxiety’. Third, partnership models for improving uptake of EVs in transportation and shared mobility.

The top 10 finalists were shortlisted through a rigorous process. They made their final in-person pitch during the finale event on December 6 in New Delhi, in front of an eminent jury. The five member jury for the final round comprised industry experts Mahua Acharya, CEO, CESL; Prof. Anadi Saran Pande, Head of Enterprise Incubation Centre, IIM-Lucknow; Anupam Jalote, CEO, iCreate; Nandini Maheshwari, Senior Director & Head of Asia Pacific Business Development, Uber; and Venkatesh Kancharla, Director, Engineering, Uber. 

The winners have been awarded with a cumulative grant of INR 7.5 Million, along with six months of incubation support at iCreate campus, an independent centre that aims to provide technology and assistance to young start-ups. The five runners-up shall also receive two months of incubation, mentorship support by Uber’s leaders, access to labs, and co-working spaces at iCreate. 

Present at the event, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog said, “Organisations which are green will prosper and progress in the future. It is important for everyone to reduce their carbon footprint, and that is what Uber is doing by promoting startups in the EV space. I would like to congratulate the winners and wish them success in the future.”

Amitabh Kant

Let us introduce you to the five winners:

  • Bodycast Innovators creates motors for electric vehicles that are of superior quality – stackable, configurable, modular, and easily repairable and YASA type motors (Yokeless and Segmented Armature). It further aims to build a sustainable and scalable motor technology that is most suitable for EV and Drone technology and; intend to continue to design and produce motors with this technology for various applications and capacities.
  • Virya Batteries was established with an objective to set up a large-scale manufacturing plant to manufacture fast charging Ultra-Safe Batteries, the team is engaged in Research and Development, and Manufacturing of Lithium-ion, Lithium Polymer, and other chemistry Cells and Batteries. The startup aims to bring the EV TCO on par with the ICE vehicles and thus accelerate EV adoption at a much faster rate with the help of their cell technology.
  • RACEnergy provides battery swapping stations and swappable batteries as a service through a network of swapping stations. It further aims to set up India’s largest battery-swapping network and to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility in India by focusing on public transportation, specifically the two-wheeler and three-wheeler segment.
  • Kazam EV is an upcoming charging management software player in Asia with Interoperable ChargePoint management software. The company provides smart, IoT enabled affordable charging solutions to address the inadequate charging infrastructure in India.
  • Emuron is an integrated SaaS platform within the electric mobility solutions space, the company has built an ecosystem of intelligent products around the li-ion battery for Battery Manufacturers, Battery/Energy Fleet Operators, and insurance and financing companies.
The winning innovators with the Uber leadership

As the world’s leading mobility platform, we have a bold 2040 target to ensure 100% of our rides globally are on zero-emission vehicles or through micro mobility and public transit. Hitting that goal in India won’t be easy, but we are determined to get there in partnership with the many brilliant Indian startups already working in the EV space and the government. We believe it’s still very early and various technologies have to be supported. That is why we are working with various OEMs, battery and charging infra players, across two, three and four wheeled products. Through the Challenge, we are moving even closer to the hub of innovations and we’ll look forward to leveraging our fast growing and nationwide platform to bring them to scale.