Ascend Capital, a Jaipur-based NBFC specialising in EV financing, has successfully raised Rs 50 crore in a Series A round led by Infoedge Ventures and Asha Ventures.
Founded by Lokesh Chandra and Gaurav Maheshwari, who are batchmates from IIT Madras, Ascend initially concentrated on a single geography and emerged as one of the leading players while maintaining profitability. “With this fundraising round, Ascend aims to expand its presence across multiple geographies and achieve an Assets Under Management (AUM) of Rs 300 crore within the next 2 years,” stated Lokesh Chandra, Co-founder of Ascend Capital.
Gaurav Maheshwari, Co-founder of Ascend, responsible for technology and product development, highlighted their focus on building robust internal platforms since inception. He mentioned, “We have devoted significant attention, right from day one, to developing internal platforms tailored to our specific business needs, including asset tracking systems and sales productivity enhancement tools.”
Chinmaya Sharma, Partner at Infoedge Ventures, expressed confidence in Ascend’s leadership and execution capabilities over the past three years, emphasising their potential to consolidate their position as one of the top EV financing platforms in the country with the current funding.
Pramod Bhasin from Asha Ventures emphasised the importance of EV financing, particularly for vulnerable segments, in advancing India’s Net Zero ambitions. He lauded Lokesh and Gaurav’s execution track record and anticipated that the investment would help them establish a market-leading platform and facilitate capital flow into this rapidly growing segment.
A press release noted a significant increase in clean mobility at a CAGR of 112% over the last 7 years. EV financing is projected to become a USD 50 billion opportunity, with 3-wheeler (L3 and L5) EV financing alone expected to reach approximately USD 5 billion in the next 7 years. This form of financing primarily targets the informal sector, often overlooked by major banks and NBFCs, offering secured and end-use protected lending products.
