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What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
The start-up aims to deliver at least one million indigenously designed and manufactured EV chargers in the next three years.
IIT Madras-incubated smart EV charger start-up Plugzmart, which aims to deliver at least one million indigenously designed and manufactured chargers in the next three years, has raised ₹3.63 crores in seed funding.
The funding was led by early-stage VC BlueHill Capital and followed by individual investors like Meera Reddy, Kartik Meyyappan, L Ramkumar, Sivadas Raghava and Shailaja Reddy.
The company plans to use the funds for research and development (R&D) and scaling up the team besides ramping up production to meet the large order pipeline already in hand, the start-up said.
Plugzmart is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of electric vehicle chargers and software as a service (SAAS) provider of electric charging infrastructure. Incubated at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in 2019, the company has built its own IOT-enabled smart EV charging management system to integrate and communicate efficiently with chargers.
It offers nine products including chargers for 2, 3 and 4-wheelers.
“Today, a majority of EV chargers in India are being imported and are of low quality. As EV adoption increases both on the consumer and commercial sides, the requirement for chargers from manufacturers of 2, 3 and 4-wheelers and charge point operators is going to scale rapidly and with this round of funding we are well positioned to fulfil this demand,” said Ragavendra Ravichandran, co-founder of Plugzmart.
The unique aspects of the company’s smart chargers developed include a software-based EV charging system designed to meet the growing demand in the charging infrastructure in India.
An algorithm will optimally schedule charging in order to maximize the usage of available grid resources for charging EVs to maximize the number of EVs that can be connected to the grid while enhancing grid stability. “This home-grown smart controller can be used in third-party chargers as well. Because of this flexibility, the system can grow and change as technology changes,” said Ravichandran.
Investor Manu Iyer, who is a partner at Bluehill Capital, said, “As the EV segment in India takes off, we are excited to partner with and invest in Plugzmart, and add to our EV portfolio. There is a gaping hole in the Made-in-India, safe and quality EV charger hardware and software market which we believe can be addressed by Plugzmart.”
Plugzmart’s indigenously designed and manufactured EV charge controller can be connected to the cloud 24X7 and can be accessed through a mobile application. It also collects data from the vehicle to analyze the battery performance and its charging cycle.
