India-based performance electric sports bike manufacturer Ultraviolette announced last week that it has raised USD 45 million as part of its Series E. This funding includes the USD 21 million that Ultraviolette had already announced in August 2025, raised from Lingotto and TDK Ventures.
The new funding has been raised from Lingotto, a subsidiary of Italy’s Agnelli family’s holding company, Exor N.V.; amongst other things, the Agnelli family owned FIAT and Ferrari before Ferrari went public and FIAT joined Stellantis. The current family leader, John Elkann, serves as Chairman of Stellantis and Ferrari, and the CEO of Exor.
The other notable investor in this round is the Sridhar Vembu family of Zoho Corporation. Vembu has been an investor in Ultraviolette since the company’s Series D in Aug 2022.
How much is Ultraviolette valued at?
Though the numbers have not been declared in the press release, we estimate the company’s valuation to be close to $450 million post-cash. Data from private market intelligence platform Tracxn put Ultraviolette’s valuation at USD 330 million in November 2024. Since then, they have raised USD 45 million in cash, launched a new product platform, and expanded their distribution network. It would have caused a decent spike in valuations.
To date, the startup has raised more than USD 149 million in cash. This makes it the third-most funded E2W venture in India after Ola Electric and Ather Energy.
The other notable investors in Ultraviolette include Qualcomm Ventures and TVS Motor.
TVS is estimated to have a 26-28% share of Ultraviolette. Between the Series A and Series D rounds, TVS participated in every funding round. However, it is not listed as an investor in Series E. This may be intentional, as Ultraviolette may not want a large two-wheeler manufacturer casting a shadow on their independence and influencing their product and technology roadmap.
Notably, TVS and Ultraviolette have not explored any synergies between their two-wheeler businesses.
The Significance of the Funding
Ultraviolette is one of the earliest startups in the Indian electric two-wheeler market. The company was founded in 2016 by Narayan Subramaniam (CEO) and Niraj Rajmohan (CTO) in Bengaluru. Unlike everyone else in the market, Ultraviolette has been steadfast in its focus on electric, high-performance sports motorcycles. They launched the F77 in October 2022. This is a mid-sized performance motorcycle with a committed rider stance, a naked bodystyle, and a top speed of 155 kph.
On paper, and likely on the road, this is a more capable machine than Honda’s upcoming WN7.
At the same time, the committed stance, the high speed, and the F77’s arguably (over) weight, overpriced status for the Indian market have made it difficult to sell the F77. Sales have been low.
We went into the details a few weeks back when we covered the engineering of the X47, Ultraviolette’s new product, released a few weeks back.
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Limited Appeal, Limited Footprint
The F77’s prices start at about INR 299,000 (USD 3300) ex-showroom in Bengaluru. At that price point, the customer is no longer a value seeker. He is a more passionate biker and is likely to go for infrequent long trips (leisure) than for regular short trips (commute). The TCO equation, typically an electric motorcycle’s first calling card, does not matter. Any electric motorcycle falls short on the freedom front, given its limited range.
To make matters more difficult for Ultraviolette, the quality and substance of rival machines at that price point are quite high. There is a huge variety as well – from Royal Enfields, to KTMs, and Hondas, a flavour to suit every taste. In comparison, the F77 is unidimensional – an expensive but rather quick ride that would give a backache after 30 minutes. One of the reasons for the low sales was also the F77’s aggressive riding stance. This is what we wrote a few weeks back:
What also does not work in the F77’s favour is the motorcycle’s aggressive riding stance, which makes it a less practical motorcycle for even those who are willing to spend the money. Born-again bikers are in their 40s, not an ideal age for back-breaking sportsbikes.
The X47 Improved Things
The company solved some of the problems with the X47, a crossover-stanced new product using the E&E platform of the F77. Unlike the F77, the X47 has a more upright stance. It is also priced lower, at INR 249,000 (USD 2750). To make things even better, the X47 comes with an ARAS radar-equipped system. That makes it a much better value for money than the F77.
That near-USD-600 gap may not look significant, but within that, the fabric of the market changes significantly. At the X47’s price point, and with its practical, upright stance, many more daily commuters would look at it with interest. That’s what Ultraviolette would want and hope for.
Funds Deployment: Expanding Retail Footprint
Another area that Ultraviolette has worked on consistently as a precursor to this funding round is the aggressive retail network expansion. The startup recently hired Gajanan Umrekar, the former sales and retail network head of Ola Electric. In recent months, the retail network has jumped from 13 outlets (Hangars, as Ultraviolette likes to call its experience centers) to 40 as we write this. The company wants to take this to 100, and that’s where a part of the present funding round is aimed at.
Funds Deployment: New Product Development
In March of this year, Ultraviolette unveiled two new product concepts – the Tesseract scooter and the Shockwave dual-purpose motorcycle.
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It had announced intentions of taking them to production and had started taking bookings. Part of the fresh funding would be targeted at taking the two products to production. With the new products, especially the Tesseract scooter, the brand would be able to attract a larger audience. A performance product that can come down the price band by a further USD 500 from the X47’s price is what Ultraviolette would be aiming at.
Ticket Sizes Remain Modest
Ultraviolette’s fundraise of USD 45 million may sound impressive, but it remains modest in size. It is indicative that the days of large triple-digit-million-USD cheques are over for now. The quality of investors on Ultraviolette’s captable is no doubt high; however, we have not reached the stage where sovereign funds start putting in money.
Also, with Ultraviolette’s very limited volumes, USD 45 million may be substantial for now to get the product pipeline going.
A Story in the Making?
Ultraviolette is a story in the making. As we said a few times earlier, it remains a promising story, though still a story. With this investment, the pressure to deliver volumes has gone up many notches. The low volumes remain a cause of concern as the bleeding is substantial. For FY 2025, Ultraviolette reported revenues of INR 320 million (USD 3.6 million) and net losses of INR 1160 million (USD 13 million). These numbers can only improve if Ultraviolette multiplies the volumes from hereon.
