Chara Technologies, a deep tech business, has raised $4.75 million in a fundraising round that was organised by Exfinity Venture Partners of Bengaluru. The venture arm of Bitexco and Log9 Materials, Big Capital, based in Vietnam, as well as previous backers Kalaari Capital and ciie.co, took part in the round.

Chara Tech has built motors for use in two-wheeler, three and four-wheeler light commercial vehicles and in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector. The motors and its matching controllers are being field tested and are expected to go into production in the second half of 2023, founder and chief executive Bhaktha Keshavachar, said. Founded in November 2019 by Keshavachar, Ravi Prasad Sharma, and Mahalingam Koushik, Chara also has several projects lined up to build motors and controllers for heavy commercial vehicles.

“To build Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) or hybrid version of SRM motors, an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in electro-mechanical, power electronics and software domains is a must… Chara Motors is also a great example for Atmanirbhar Bharat as it delinks the permanent magnet supply chain dependency from China and other countries,” said Chinnu Senthilkumar, managing partner at Exfinity.

Senthilkumar said the electric vehicles story for South Asia and similar markets has to be contextualized and not replicated from the United States and European markets. Exfinity has also invested in Log9 Materials, which is also an existing partner of Chara’s.

For the electric car fleet of the former, Bounce and Chara Technologies announced in 2021 that they would manufacture electric motors domestically. For the design, construction, and deployment of electric motors for electric vehicles, HVAC systems, and a variety of other applications, Chara is developing a cloud-controlled, rare-earth free platform. Its Drive Control Firmware (DCF) is a collection of packages made up of sophisticated motor control algorithms that get the most out of custom-built motors.