SucSEED venture partners expanding its investment horizon into automobile segment by investing into Sepal. Sepal was founded in 2017 by Vidhey Addepally and Sriram Kashyap. Sepal is aiming at making biking more enjoyable and comfortable by not letting climate dictate riders travel plan. The extended canopy coupled with the water-repellent windshield to ensure riders have a smooth and comfortable ride whether it is scorching or showering outside. Team has applied user centric design in arriving the product which can be used globally.
“With Sepal, a rider can get a sense of Safety, Security and comfort that never has been experienced”
Founders started the idea of Sepal when Vidhey was studying at IIT Bombay. Sepal was incubated in Desai Sethi centre for entrepreneurship, IIT Bombay. SucSEED lead the investment along with few other angel investors. The investment amount will be crucial for Sepal in expanding the product development activities and penetrating the last-mile delivery market.
Commenting on the fund raise, Vidhey Addepally, co-founder of Sepal, said, “SucSEED has been helping us to prioritize the key value props of our product & streamline our efforts. This enabled us to build a very sustainable growth strategy”
Speaking on why SucSEED has invested in Sepal, Saurabh Sharma, an Active Investor, with SucSEED, said “Sepal founders bring a lot of energy along with design concepts to improve the huge two wheeler community and enhance their riding experience. India overtook China as the largest producer of two wheelers (23 million in 2017-18 alone) and if SEPAL product is received well in the market, it could be part of Custom-offering from the Bike Manufacturers too. SEPAL’s ideas on expanding this design concept to include music, news and lots of other services while riding the bike attracted me as an investor”.
Vikrant Varshney, Cofounder & Partner, SucSEED, said “Globally 2-wheeler industry amounts to $190Bn market and in India alone, we have over 200 million 2-wheelers on roads. SucSEED believes that there are extraordinary opportunities in India today in Automobile Segment due to reliance on vehicles for personal commute, various transportation & delivery needs. When it comes to an accessory like SEPAL’s, the market potential could be around $10Bn within India. Besides 2-wheeler owners using it for personal commute, there is also a growing tribe of Business delivery runners with huge focus on timely delivery of food items Domino & PizzaHut/ Zomato/ Swiggy, Grocery by Bigbasket/ Grofers, Consumables by amazon/flipkart, Documents & Couriers by Fedex/ DHL/ India Post etc. which will all get positively benefitted with this innovation, to face difficult weather conditions, if manufactured at right efficiency and marketed well.
SEPAL is one such innovation and we are impressed with energy and passion of founders who are going after ambitious plan to make bike ride safe and enjoyable. We are confident that Sepal will be household name soon”
