Japan's Terra Motors raises $28m

Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service, heavy industry lender Tokyo Century, and utilities supplier Osaka Gas also participated. It follows a JPY 1bn round in 2018 from Chibagin Capital, Fenox Venture Capital, Minato Capital, and Yamaguchi Capital.

Previous backers include SMBC Venture Capital KSK Angel Fund, Aizawa Securities, and Shinsei Bank. Mizuho Capital was the earliest investor, having provided seed funding shortly after the company’s inception in 2010. It has participated in at least four rounds, according to AVCJ Research.

Terra’s core business has historically been the manufacture of two and three-wheel EVs with a significant presence in India. The company claims to sell 30,000 units a year. It also brands itself as a broader e-mobility business with various smart city services based on big data, internet-of-things, and digital connectivity.

Operations were expanded to include EV charging infrastructure in April last year. There are plans to install chargers in apartment buildings, hotels, and golf courses. The idea is to provide a one-stop service with an app for setting charging times and bill payments, as well as hardware that can accommodate various types of plugs.

Terra expects government subsidies to reduce initial costs for the rollout, noting official targets to have 150,000 charging stations installed nationwide by 2030 and to increase EV sales by 100% through 2035. The company also said its experience as an EV hardware manufacturer would help it control costs.

EV charging infrastructure has been a relatively thorny social issue in Japan due to the difficulty of reaching consensus on initial costs and running costs. Terra, which will deploy the bulk of the Series C in its charging programme, said in a statement that had already started providing infrastructure with no initial costs and no running costs for the first time in the industry.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Cleantech
• Japan
• India
• Electric Vehicles
• Transportation