The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a $20 million equity investment in Mumbai-based electric vehicle (EV) platform Transvolt Mobility (Transvolt), as part of a $50 million financing round.

IFC said the investment will help enhance access to quality urban transport, scale up EV production, and strengthen India’s electric mobility ecosystem.

This equity investment is IFC’s first in an EV platform.

Transvolt aims to utilize the investment to scale its electric fleet portfolio to 3,500 vehicles and create 8,200 jobs over the coming five years. The company also plans to deploy 8,000 heavy commercial EVs, such as buses and trucks, across India.

The company has deployed 500 heavy commercial EVs since the financial year (FY) 2023.

IFC said that India’s transition goals, which include electrifying 800,000 buses, replacing 10% of diesel trucks with 400,000 electric trucks, and electrifying 18% of small commercial vehicles (SCVs) by deploying 111,000 e-SCVs, offer an opportunity to invest in scalable EV solutions across public and private fleets. This opportunity involves mobilizing an estimated $200 billion to complete the transition.

Imad N Fakhoury, IFC’s Regional Director for South Asia at IFC, said, “Our investment in Transvolt will drive the adoption of EVs, especially buses, as they remain the preferred and affordable mode of transportation across India.” He added that IFC’s private sector solutions, including e-mobility, are critical to the World Bank Group’s approach to support India’s urban transformation agenda.

In FY 2024, IFC committed $56 billion in financing to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries.

Transvolt is an original equipment manufacturer-agnostic platform. It offers e-mobility infrastructure capability in the business-to-government, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business segments.

Recently, IFC committed ₹4.6 billion (~$53.49 million) in long-term financing to IndiGrid through a subscription to listed non-convertible debentures to develop a 180 MW/360 MWh standalone battery energy storage system project in Gujarat.

In June, IFC invested in a Series B fundraising round for Kazam, an EV charging software platform. The platform raised a total of $6.2 million, with existing investors Vertex Ventures SEA and India, as well as Avaana Capital Advisors, participating in the round.