2022 has been an exciting year for Ostara Advisors. The mission that we started out with in 2018 – to create India’s first specialised investment bank focused on Mobility and Sustainability – has led us to pole position in our chosen sectors in 2022. As we bid farewell to this exciting year, let’s recap what we’ve been up to in these past twelve months in The Ostara Rewind.
We started the year with a bang! Our client Altigreen Propulsion Labs, India’s leading commercial EV manufacturer, raised their Series A funding round. The $40m investment round was led by Sixth Sense Ventures, along with Xponentia Capital, Accurant International, LLC USA, Reliance New Energy (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited) and Momentum Ventures (the Corporate venture arm of SMRT Corporation, Singapore). This was the largest fund-raise from Indian venture and corporate investors by an electric 3W startup and the first-ever investment in this space by all participating investors. During the year, we also helped close a few bridge rounds for our clients and are working on several exciting fund-raising and M&A transactions for industry-leading companies across the Indian EV ecosystem.
Ostara’s Research in 2022
In our monthly newsletter, we covered several core topics that are relevant to the electric mobility landscape in India:
- In our February newsletter, titled “The Emerging Opportunity in Micro-mobility”, we discussed the huge trend towards purpose-built vehicles for daily commutes as well as emerging consumer trends in sharing and ownership of such vehicles.
- In our March edition, titled “Oh SPAC!”, we demystified this much-talked-about phenomenon and gave a round-up of their rise and fall in the past year.
- April saw the “Ostara Guide to Safe Charging”, where we explored the causes of battery fires and the need for safe charging practices, given rising EV adoption in India. This was Part 1 of our 4-part series on the EV Charging Value Chain.
- May 2022 marked one year of publishing our monthly newsletter. Our “First Anniversary Edition”, being Part 2 of our 4-part series on the EV Charging Value Chain saw us discuss the Indian Charge-point Operator (CPO) landscape in some detail.
- In our June edition, “A Quick Overview of EV Chargers”- Part 3 of our 4-part series on the EV Charging Value Chain, we covered EV chargers and their manufacturers.
- Our July edition, “The EV Battery Management System (BMS)”, marked the final issue of our 4-Part series on the Indian Charging Landscape. In this issue, we discussed the role and key functionalities of the BMS, different types based on design, topology and voltage, as well as our listing of key BMS players in India, and Deals and Developments.
- With the logistics sector being a major contributor to the Indian economy, and greenhouse gas emissions, electrification is the need of the hour, which is why our August issue saw us discuss various emerging business and operating models for “Electrifying Freight”.
- Continuing where we left off, September’s edition delved into how the world is electrifying freight and some interesting case studies from across the globe.
- October’s issue shed light on the frameworks and trends in Financing India’s EVs. This was Part 1 of our 2-part series on EV financing.
- The November edition saw us take a look at Green Bonds and the Banking system’s role in Financing India’s EVs, Part 2 of our EV financing Series.
Ostara’s Thought Leadership in 2022
This year saw the launch of India’s first Freight Electrification initiative. NITI Aayog invited us to the launch of e-FAST India (Electric Freight Accelerator for Sustainable Transport – India), the country’s first national electric freight platform which aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of India’s freight and logistics sector. We were also invited to speak at the World Resources Institute (WRI) Roundtable on the Decarbonization of India’s Freight & Logistics sectors, and their workshop on financing and creating an investment ecosystem for Electric Rickshaws in India.
At the Impact Investors Council‘s invitation, we also penned our views on the private capital flows into the Indian EV ecosystem. We were also invited to speak at IET India’s Future Tech Congress 2022, India’s first industry-driven Mobility conference, Micelio Global Clean Mobility Summit as well as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Infrastructure Conclave: Rebooting Infrastructure.
Vasudha Madhavan, Founder of Ostara Advisors, was featured on Energizing India Podcast, India’s only EV-focused podcast where she spoke about Financing EVs and the EV startup ecosystem, and in the List of 5 inspiring women founders, compiled by The Better India, who also featured her as the “Woman Behind India’s First Electric-Mobility Focused Investment Bank”
As the year comes to a close, we feel truly grateful for the love and support from our clients, industry stakeholders and investors over the past year and look forward to reaching greater heights in 2023.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year,
Team Ostara.
