Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal has invested around $1 million in Chennai-based start-up, Ather.

The company incubated at the incubation cell at IIT Madras is an electric vehicle start-up focused on designing high-speed electric two-wheelers for the Indian market.

The funding round also includes investment from Raju Venkatraman, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Medall. Ather was started by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013 with a mission to accelerate the adoption of electrical vehicles in India.

According to the company, the fund raised through the funding will be used for product development. Prior to this, Ather raised their first round of capital in February this year from Dr. V. Srinivas, founder of Aerospike and the Technology Development Board, Government of India.

Commenting on the investment Tarun Mehta said, “We are very excited about this fresh round of funding. Electric vehicles are still at a very nascent stage in India and our aim is to develop and introduce efficient electric scooters which will benefit the country and help manage its resources more effectively. We are extremely confident about this product and this funding is a reinforcement of our belief.”

With a team of 15 engineers and designers currently Ather is engaged in full-vehicle design and testing. The initial performance validation is over and manufacturing partners are currently being brought on-board.

Commenting on this funding, Sachin and Binny Bansal jointly said, “We believe that the world is moving towards a smarter, more energy-efficient and environment-friendly approach in our daily lives. Growing Indian start-ups like Ather are using technology successfully to make a mark in this field”.

Earlier, in November Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal along with four investors had made an investment of $1 million in a Bengaluru- based offline games start-up MadRat Games.