Liger Mobility, a Mumbai-based technology start-up is looking to disrupt the two-wheeler market with what it claims to be the first-of-its-kind made-in-India solution – self-balancing technology for the two-wheeler segment. The company has showcased its first product – Liger X – likely to be retailed at around Rs 90,000 (post FAME subsidies) once it is launched.
The highlight of the e-scooter in addition to the usual features in an EV is the ability of the two-wheeler to balance itself with absolutely no intervention needed by the rider. This it says will bring in many more potential customers who have never ridden a two-wheeler before and thus cut down on their learning curve or fear for balancing the two-wheeler.
Founded by Vikas Poddar, a graduate from IIT Madras and an MBA from ISB, and Ashutosh Upadhyay, a graduate of IIT Kharagpur aim to make two-wheelers safer — and in turn also save precious lives. It was this journalist who had broken the story about the start-ups self-balancing scooter in 2019.
Over the last three years, the Founders have been working relentlessly to perfect their solution and ensure a full-fledged product. The strategy however has changed. In an interaction with Express Mobility, Poddar and Upadhyay share their thoughts. Edited Excerpts.
How much investments have you raised so far and how big is your team?
Poddar: We have raised over a million dollars (Rs 9 crore) so far. The funds have come from established incubators, Angel investors, and Grants. We have been fairly innovative and extremely efficient with capital usage. Given the nature and complexity of the problem we were attacking, we realised that time was a more important resource for us than funds.
What is your go-to-market strategy? Will you look at the D2C model or establish your own sales and service network?
Poddar: We will start with experience centres in select cities to establish and control the end-to-end process right from experience, order, delivery, and post-sales. Subsequently, we will scale up our distribution through dealerships that share our values.
What is your manufacturing strategy? Will you invest in your own manufacturing set-up or look at contract manufacturing partners?
Upadhyay: Our focus is on design, IP, software, hardware, ai, assembly and quality. While we have designed and developed all our components in-house, we will not be manufacturing our entire BOM (bill of materials). The approach is to collaborate with experienced manufacturing partners to productionise and scale our designs. We will have our own assembly lines. Our custom components will be manufactured via existing setups of our component manufacturing partners.
What will be the incremental cost vs the competition (without self-balancing tech)?
Poddar: Liger X will be priced at around Rs 90,000 (Including FAME subsidy). Given the variations in specs of the entire bill of materials for different vehicles in the market, it will be hard to make an apple-to-apple comparison.
Is your product completely ready to be commercially sold, or what preparations will you need?
Upadhyay: The product is in the Homologation and Validation Stage. The pre-orders will start by mid-2023 and deliveries towards the end-2023. The milestone of homologation, tooling, and assembling line setup and production pilot will be completed before the pre-orders and delivery.
A lot of many start-ups have taken the route of showcasing the product, and opening bookings but have been unable to meet the delivery commitments. How would you look at that situation?
Upadhyay: While we are aware of the approach, we do not subscribe to the idea. Over the years, we have received a lot of interest from users who wish to purchase our vehicle. The current unveil is for letting our potential users know that building a high-quality automotive product entails strict adherence to an industry-standard approach that has proven the test of time. We will continue to respect the process and will not be taking pre-orders unless we are very close to making deliveries.
Will you be open to sharing your self-balancing tech with other players?
Poddar: There are no such plans as of now. We may consider strategic partnerships and collaborations to scale across geographies and segments in the long run.
What are your future plans and will you need to raise additional funds?
Poddar: We are well capitalised for our current plans. And over the next 3 years, we will be raising $30-50 million (Rs 250 crore to 412 crore) to ramp up sales in the domestic and export markets. We will also be focussing on autonomous features, which will be relevant for two-wheeler shared mobility markets.
