Deeptech startup Chara raises $4.75 million from Exfinity, others

Vietnam-based Big Capital, the venture arm of Bitexco and Log9 Materials, as well as returning investors Kalaari Capital and ciie.co also participated in the round.

Chara Tech has built motors for use in two-wheeler, three and four-wheeler light commercial vehicles and in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector.

The motors and its matching controllers are being field tested and are expected to go into production in the second half of 2023, founder and chief executive Bhaktha Keshavachar, told ET.

Founded in November 2019 by Keshavachar, Ravi Prasad Sharma, and Mahalingam Koushik, Chara also has several projects lined up to build motors and controllers for heavy commercial vehicles.

“To build Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) or hybrid version of SRM motors, an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in electro-mechanical, power electronics and software domains is a must… Chara Motors is also a great example for Atmanirbhar Bharat as it delinks the permanent magnet supply chain dependency from China and other countries,” said Chinnu Senthilkumar, managing partner at Exfinity.

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Senthilkumar said the electric vehicles story for South Asia and similar markets has to be contextualized and not replicated from the United States and European markets.Exfinity has also invested in Log9 Materials, which is also an existing partner of Chara’s.

In 2021, Bounce and Chara Technologies said it would produce electric motors locally for the former’s fleet of electric vehicles.

Chara is building a cloud-controlled, and rare-earth free platform for designing, building, and deploying electric motors for electric vehicles, HVAC and various other applications.

Its proprietary Drive Control Firmware (DCF) is a suite of packages consisting of advanced motor control algorithms that extract maximum performance from motors designed in-house.