Bengaluru-based EV bus startup FreshBus raises Rs 26 crore

New Delhi: Bengaluru-based EV bus startup FreshBus on Thursday said it has raised Rs 26 crore in a funding round from travel tech platform ixigo.

The fund raised in the seed funding round will help the launch of the company's premium inter-city electric bus services across India, FreshBus said in a statement.

The company will commence its services simultaneously from Hyderabad and Bengaluru with the launch of 24 electric buses. It plans to scale up operations to over 1,000 buses pan-India in the next 2-3 years.

"We will offer a more environment-friendly and affordable alternative to existing inter-city public transport which is currently dominated by fossil-fuel buses," FreshBus Founder and CEO Sudhakar Reddy Chirra said.

ixigo Co-Founder & Group CEO Aloke Bajpai and Co-Founder & Group CPTO Rajnish Kumar said the company has invested in FreshBus with a joint vision of a future where all inter-city buses in India will run on clean fuel as the current diesel-based buses are a major source of urban air pollution.