The International Finance Corporation ( IFC ), the private finance arm of the World Bank, is providing US$20 million in equity investment to Transvolt Mobility of India, as part of the company’s US$50 million financing round.

The equity investment, announced on July 18, represents the IFC’s first such investment in an electric vehicle ( EV ) platform in India and globally. It will enable Transvolt to scale its electric fleet portfolio to 3,500 vehicles and create 8,200 jobs in the next five years. It will also support the company’s long-term goal of deploying 8,000 heavy commercial EVs such as buses and trucks across India.

The IFC investment, says Dheeraj Jhawar, Transvolt’s director and co-founder, strengthens the company’s resolve to build a scalable and sustainable commercial EV platform. “With IFC’s support, we aim to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport and build inclusive solutions that are aligned with national and global sustainability goals.

Debasis Mohanty, Transvolt’s CEO and co-founder, adds: “Transvolt is India’s first integrated and OEM [original equipment manufacturer]-agnostic EV platform that owns and operates electric buses and trucks for both government and private sector clients. The company is focused on delivering zero-emission mobility solutions aligned with global sustainable transportation goals.”

India’s ambitious push towards clean mobility, according to the IFC, aims to electrify 800,000 buses, replace 10% of diesel trucks with 400,000 electric trucks and achieve 18% electrification of small commercial vehicles ( SCVs ) by deploying 111,000 e-SCVs. This transition presents an opportunity to invest in scalable EV solutions across public and private fleets and mobilize an estimated US$200 billion to meet the country’s targets.

India’s transition to sustainable transport hinges on scalable solutions, explains Vikram Kumar, the IFC’s regional industry director for infrastructure and natural resources in Asia and the Pacific, and the IFC investment leverages private sector innovation and technological advances to drive sustainable transportation.

“Transvolt has been a key partner of IFC,” Kumar adds, “and through our collaboration, we aim to enhance market competitiveness in the sector by enabling the electrification of public and private fleets operated by municipalities and corporations, demonstrating the commercial viability of electric fleets and expanding access to quality urban transport.”

The IFC regional director for South Asia Imad Fakhoury concurs: “Accelerating urban mobility and last-mile connectivity is critical to India’s development goals. Our investment in Transvolt will drive the adoption of EVs, especially buses, as they remain the preferred and affordable mode of transportation across India.”

With 500 heavy commercial EVs already deployed since its inception in financial year 2023, Transvolt has established a strong presence across various business segments like municipal corporations, corporate employee transportation and haulage for leading cement manufacturers.

Transvolt is an electric mobility platform, it explains, that leverages the proven global experience of its senior management team and its working partners, developments in e-mobility technology, and the Indian government’s strong push for electrification of transportation in various states as well as in the country.

The EV platform envisages to integrate and create powerful connected ecosystem across products and services segments in the value chain to create and offer a robust e-mobility infrastructure capability in the business-to-government, -consumer and -business domains.

As part of its effort to build a robust EV platform, Transvolt, it notes, has established tie-ups with multiple EV manufacturers to provide buses of different categories to cater to the needs of customers. It has also developed an ecosystem for providing EV-charging solutions through tie-ups with charge point operators and maintenance partners to provide services pan-India.