This Woman Entrepreneur is Solving the Pollution Caused by Delivery Vehicles by Providing Electric Vehicle Alternative
After building her own fashion tech startup, Rashi Agarwal joined her husband Akash Gupta to launch Zypp Electric, which aims to reduce pollution by using electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries.
On their travels abroad the couples Rashi Agarwal and Akash Gupta noticed how most of the short-distance transportation was clean and environment-friendly. They were inspired to introduce environment-friendly transportation to India too. That is why Rashi joined her husband Akash when he launched Zypp Electric in 2017.
Rashi had a fashion tech start-up LetsFlaunt, but because of the competition in the market, there was a limit to which the company could be developed. She joined Zypp Electric because she wanted to be a part of a project that is helping to counter climate change.
Zypp Electricals mainly distribute Electric Vehicles for the last-mile delivery service. Last-mile delivery refers to the very last step of the delivery process when a parcel is moved from a transportation hub to its final destination. The product delivered can be food, clothes or any item.
In addition to Electric Vehicles (EVs), they also offer a battery swapping infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), and an artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) platform. They make it sustainable and affordable for all types of businesses like e-commerce platforms, e-grocery companies, and even small scale delivery systems.
Today, Zypp has over 100 partners across logistics, grocery, food, and pharma sectors, including Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy, Bigbasket, Blinkit, PharmEasy, Delhivery, Spencers, and others. It has also partnered with most leading last-mile delivery service providers.
Because Electric Vehicles are still a new concept in India, it comes with its own challenges. Rashi says in an interview with HerStory, “While we have deployed charging stations and battery swapping networks, it is still a long road ahead to meet the requirements of the industry. Zypp riders are equipped with two batteries giving them a mileage of 120 km in one go, hence also taking care of their mileage anxiety. We also provide them with first-hand experience of EV scooters and have introduced a buyback option with our OEM partners to cover the second-hand sale of EV scooters as well.”
Rashi claims that the startup’s IoT and AI/ML-enabled EV platform has been able to save 2,917 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide for the country by making over 4 million deliveries in Financial Year 2022. Additionally, Zypp scaled its fleet of EVs from 800 in 2021 to 5,000 in 2022.
Rashi plans to take Zypp Electric to the next level by scaling from 5,000 EVs to 25,000 by December and is focused on expanding operations to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, among others.
-Staff Reporter
