From College Startup to EV Leader: Ather Energy’s Story скачать в хорошем качестве

From College Startup to EV Leader: Ather Energy’s Story

In the first episode of Deep Innovation Dialogues, powered by FAST India, we kick off with a story that defines India’s innovation spirit. Varun Aggarwal, co-founder of FAST India sits down with Swapnil Jain, co-founder of Ather Energy for a deep and candid conversation on what it takes to build breakthrough hardware — from college dorm dreams to creating a company that redefined India's EV landscape . Together, they unpack the highs and hurdles of deep-tech entrepreneurship, the bold bets behind Ather’s R&D journey, and why building in India today means focusing on R&D, reimagining talent, supply chains, and clean energy technologies for a global stage. About FAST India Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology or FAST India is a non-profit institution dedicated to advancing Science and Technology in India. FAST envisions placing India on the path to being among the top three S&T nations over this decade. About Ather Energy Ather Energy is an electric two-wheeler manufacturer headquartered in Bangalore and founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013. In FY 24-25 the company’s revenue rose nearly 29% to about ₹2,255 crore. The company spent around 13% of total income on R&D in FY22–FY24 placing it among the highest R&D-intensity players in India’s two-wheeler EV segment. Timestamps 0:00 Motivation behind starting Ather 01:13 What makes an Ather scooter "smart"? 04:26 Ather’s Genesis Story 08:26 How did Ather get its first funders? 09:58 Building Ather’s own EV Tech Stack 12:44 Creating an in-house R&D DNA 22:18 Challenges that hardware startups face 28:48 Why investing in R&D is crucial 33:12 The importance of technology sovereignty and manufacturing capabilities 38:13 Aligning incentives for academia and industry 41:45 Importance of Ease of Doing Research in Indian institutions 43:57 Final advice for entrepreneurs Social Links Website: https://fast-india.org LinkedIn:   / fast-india   X: https://x.com/FASTIndiaTrust