Commercial EV platform Turno raises $13.8M in Series A led by B Capital, Quona Capital

Turno, a platform for commercial electric vehicle (EV) distribution and financing, said it has raised $13.8 million in Series A funding co-led by global venture capital firms B Capital and Quona Capital. Existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Avaana Capital along with new investors Alteria Capital and InnoVen Capital, also participated in the round.

The Bengaluru-based startup said it will use the capital raised to build a proprietary battery technology platform that would help repurpose EV batteries to large-scale energy storage systems–a move it believes would result in reduced costs which would in turn make owning an EV ownership cheaper.

This funding round comes seven months after it raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by Stellaris Venture and participation from Avaana Capital and a number of angel investors such as Jayant Paleti of Darwinbox, Ashish Goel of Urban Ladder, Vipul Parekh of Bigbasket and Speciale Invest’s Arjun Rao.

Turno sells EVs manufactured by different brands online through its platform as well as in the form of physical stores besides providing financing options and buy-back of used batteries.

Turno was founded by Hemanth Aluru and Sudhindra Reddy who met while working at car-sharing business Zoomcar in January 2022. It currently operates in Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi-NCR, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

“Today 80-85% of India’s automotive fuel consumption is driven by commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines. Yet, there is a strong desire to transition to a green economy and so, commercial EV adoption holds significant promise. Turno was founded with the mission to convert these "gasoline miles" into “electric miles” having a significant positive impact on the environment,” said Hemanth, Co-Founder and CEO of Turno, in a statement.

Turno, which says it has a 20% market share of the commercial EV market, has joined hands with multiple three-wheeler EV manufacturers like Piaggio, Mahindra & Mahindra and Etrio as distribution partners across India.