Jaipur man buys Ather electric scooter worth over a lakh using ₹10 coins; CEO Tarun Mehta shares pic

A man in Jaipur, Rajasthan, bought Ather 450 Electric Scooter worth around ₹ ₹ 1,09,947-1,44,871 recently. What made the purchase interesting was that the customer paid the entire amount in ₹10 coins. Ather Energy CEO Tarun Mehta took to social media to share a picture of the "new Ather owner" being handed over the keys.

Mehta tweeted, "A new Ather owner just bought himself a 450 in Jaipur...all with 10 Re coins!" The picture shared by him also showed tens of pouch — filled with ₹10 coin — laid on the table.

Mehta didn't specify the exact model of the Ather 450 series the Jaipur man purchased. However, the Bengaluru-based EV startup offers three models under the Ather 450 series — Ather 450Apex, Ather 450X and Ather 450S. The prices start at around ₹ 1.10 lakh and can go up to ₹ 1.45 lakh (effective ex-showroom price in Jaipur). The on-road price could touch ₹ 1.75 lakh.

Ather, backed by Singapore's GIC and Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, is planning an India listing and has a market valuation of $739.4 million, Reuters reported while citing data from investment tracker Tracxn. India's government anticipates the share of electric two-wheelers in overall sales to rise to 60%-70% by 2030 from 4.7% in 2023.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Ather Energy Pvt is seeking to hire investment banks to help arrange a potential initial public offering in Mumbai as early as this year. The company is selecting banks for a listing that could value the firm at about $2 billion, sources told the media.

The Bangalore-based company could seek to raise as much as $400 million in a share sale, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private, the report added.

Ather was founded in 2013 by two graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. The company raised about $128 million in a series E round in 2022 from investors including India’s sovereign wealth fund, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Ltd., and existing shareholders such as Indian two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd, Bloomberg reported.