Bengaluru-based electric scooter maker River has raised a $15 million funding round led by UAE-based multinational company Al Futtaim Group.

Existing investors including Silicon Valley investor Chris Sacca-owned Lowercarbon Capital, Toyota Ventures, Maniv Mobility, and Trucks VC also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

The fresh funding will help the startup scale its manufacturing and distribution networks with deliveries set to start in August this year.

“This is an important milestone for us, as a part of the money will go into investing in the product platform, our factory, and our distribution,” said Aravind Mani, CEO and cofounder of River. “This helps us to start selling the product in the market make us revenue positive.”

While other electric scooter makers like Ather and Ola have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, Mani believes that the $15 million funding would be enough at this stage of the company’s journey.

River, which was founded by Mani and Vipin George, already opened bookings for its maiden vehicle Indie but declined to share the numbers as the company is expected to increase the price of the vehicle following the decision by the central government to reduce the FAME-II subsidy allocation per vehicle.

Mani declined to share the final price of the vehicle saying it is still being figured out. The company had earlier said that the price would start at Rs 1,25,000. He said that the company will not be making any changes to the model it had announced and said that only the price of the vehicle will be impacted. The central government reduced the subsidy for electric two-wheelers from Rs 15,000 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to Rs 10,000 per kWh. River has a 4 kWh batter, which would mean that the company could potentially see a rise of Rs 20,000 per vehicle.

“We evaluated over 50 electric two-wheeler start-ups, and are impressed by the team’s vision and relentless commitment to in-house product development,” said Paul Willis, preseident of Al Futtaim Automotive. “I am confident that their products will see great success, in India and internationally.”

The new funding marks River’s third round, following a $2 million seed round in March 2021 and a $11 million round in July 2022. River is also the sole Indian investment for Al Futtaim group, Toyota Ventures, Trucks VC, and Maniv Mobility.

Al Futtaim Group is a conglomerate with five operating divisions (automotive, retail, real estate, healthcare, and financial services) and is spread across more than 20 countries, with a workforce of over 33,000 people in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

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