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LightSpeed Mobility shuts down | Founder Rahil Rupawala feels there is immense potential in electric bicycle space


Ahmedabad based electric bicycles company LightSpeed Mobility recently announced wrapping up production and operations after a 5-year stint. During these 5 years, LightSpeed launched 5 models of electric bicycles, 5 models of regular bicycles, and managed to sell more than 4,000 bicycles altogether.

The start-up was incubated and seed-funded at Venture Studio and supported by a grant under the start-up policy of the Government of Gujarat. We caught up with the founder Rahil Rupawala to talk about his experience and learnings.

Please share a brief about your journey with LightSpeed Electric.

I started working on LightSpeed in 2015. In the beginning, we just slapped the motor and battery on a bicycle and called it an electric bicycle. From that prototype, bringing Lightspeed to the market to thousands of customers has been an amazing journey. When we started we did not know whether the product would be accepted in the market or who would be riding it. But along the way, we found out that there is tremendous demand for electric bicycles across the country. I think in the coming decade, the electric cycle is going to be seen a lot more. 

So what is the reason you are having to shut the doors?

Certainly, we were doing well. The sales numbers were good and we were mostly out of stock. The main issue was operational and financial efficiency. These were the two things we were not able to manage as well as we would have loved to. That’s why we took a call to shut the company down. The production was shut back in Feb 2021 and we allowed time for our employees to find other opportunities. Our after-sales is still going on and we will fulfil the service and warranty commitments made to our customers.

You started in 2015. Do you think you stepped into the game a little too early? 

No, I think we stepped in the game at the right time because we had the liberty to set the tone for the market. The price point we introduced has become the market norm. Though it was initially a bit difficult to convince people to get the bicycles, acceptance was still there. It was a good time to begin. 

You talked about the operations and financial issues that lead to the closure of the startup. If you could raise the investment at the right time, do you think it would have solved the problem? Was it a money problem after all?

It’s not like I closed the company because I ran out of money. I could have definitely sustained the operations for few more years. But I saw no point in taking the operations from that point to a scalability point myself. Raising investment changes the game for anyone and you can build the business over more years. But, unfortunately, we were not able to raise as much as we wanted. 

And in terms of operations what were the challenges that you faced? 

See, the first thing is the industry is too dependent on imports and a lot of components are sourced from abroad. Those components were specifically made for us on order and it takes a whole lot of time from putting order to those parts coming in. And, as a startup you can only order in a limited quantity and there is a cash flow to be taken care of. These are very basic issues but things become unsustainable if you cannot control it.

What is your advice to upcoming e-mobility startups? 

Funding does happen in this field, but you can not be running your company in the hope that you will receive funding. This business requires a lot of capital. Bootstrapping is possible if there is an influx of funds from the business. A good start can be made with a lot of capital, but success is not guaranteed. It depends on individual skills what they want to achieve. I wanted the company to be something that is much more fun and rewarding for us than trading the bicycles.

Did you explore the options where a company in the ev space could acquire and bring in the resources and funds to make it work?

The sales channels for electric bicycles and other electric two-wheelers are also pretty different. We did not have synergies with any other players on that front.

What are your thoughts on the market potential for electric bicycles? 

I think there is terrific potential and great market demand. E-bicycles are not limited to one sort of usage. There are multiple use cases like daily commute, recreation, exercise etc. Electric cargo bikes are now coming up for food delivery or last-mile delivery which is going to play a big role in the adoption of electric bicycles. We need more models and more touchpoints for retail all over the country.

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5 thoughts on “LightSpeed Mobility shuts down | Founder Rahil Rupawala feels there is immense potential in electric bicycle space

  • મારે એક સાઇકલ ની જરૂર પડે એમ છે અને હું તમારી કંપની ની સાયકલ ખરીદવાની ઇચ્છા ધરાવું છું પરંતુ તેના વિશે કોઈ જાણકારી અંદાજિત કિંમત આપવા મહેરબાની જેથી કરીને પૈસાની વ્યવસ્થા કરવામાં સરળતા રહે .ભરૂચ થી એક ગુજરાતી
    મોબાઇલ નંબર 94 84 5626 00

  • Would the company like to share the info on the types and kits in stock?
    In case you like to sell; share the price.
    Your comments on DOs & DONT’s will be helpful !

  • I purchased a bike from them at a cost of 70,000 and all of a sudden thay have closed now we don’t find a service center and the bike is kept in the godown !

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