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Electric motorcycle maker Orxa Energies has closed an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding round from SAR Group’s electric mobility arm Lectrix E-Vehicles. 

Along with the fundraising deal, Orxa Energies is also getting into a strategic collaboration with Lectrix E-Vehicles.

The collaboration is expected to drive the manufacturing readiness for commercial production of Orxa Energies’ flagship all-electric high-performance motorcycle, the Mantis.

With the fresh funds from the SAR group, which is one of India’s leading industry players in energy storage and clean energy technologies, Orxa Energies plans to bring multiple performance EV products into the market and to set up its new manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Bengaluru in the next three to four months.

The startup said its manufacturing capacity would be large enough to accommodate the at-scale production of the Mantis, which is expected to be open for pre-orders within the next 9-12months. 

“With access to Lectrix’s experience and network, we will be able to accelerate our launch and go to market,” said Dr. Prajwal Sabnis, cofounder of Orxa Energies. 

Founded by Sabnis and Ranjita Ravi in 2017, Orxa Energies is a high-performance EV and energy systems startup. The EV startup aims to rapidly electrify all transport and is working towards achieving this goal through its fully electric performance vehicles and performance battery packs.

The startup had earlier raised three rounds of external funding. It claims to have been generating revenues since 2018 and growing 6X year-on-year (YoY) from its B2B business. 

In the two-wheeler motorcycle space, Orxa Energies competes with the likes of Revolt, Odysse, and international premium brand Ducati, among others. In the broader two-wheeler EV segment, the likes of Ather Energy, Ola Electric, and Okinawa Autotech are also its peers.

“Over the last few years, Orxa has created a well-architected and full-stack solution for EVs and this is closely aligned with our vision at Lectrix EV,” said K Vijaya Kumar, managing director and CEO, Lectrix EV. “[We] look forward to working with Orxa on multiple early-stage EV technologies.”

Amid the recent electric two-wheeler fire incidents in the country during the summer months, which have repeatedly raised questions about the quality of EV batteries and their ability to function well in the Indian ambient temperature conditions, Orxa Energies claims to have test ridden its motorcycles under extreme temperatures.

Earlier this year, Orxa Energies said that two Mantis motorcycles covered 13,510 km each in 54 days.

Besides focusing on products, the startup is also growing its team. According to the startup, in the coming months, it is planning to grow its team size by nearly five times. Focus would be to strengthen the startup’s engineering muscle, and develop similar teams in production, quality control, supply chain, and marketing, said cofounder Ravi.

“In the last few months, we have added 25% to our team and by October 2022, we will have doubled our team size,” she added.

The EV segment in India is continuing to grow, particularly with the government introducing various policies to boost both the production and adoption of vehicles across categories. 

As per a report, the Indian electric scooter and motorcycle market could reach a sales volume of 10.8 Lakh by the end of 2025, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57.9% between 2020 and 2025.