Startup Circle: By maximizing EV adoption, how is Terabite Ekarts revolutionizing street vendors?

EV is booming technology in India. Many sectors and industries have now invested in R&D to implement electric vehicles in their sectors. Especially in India, with Tesla wanting to enter the market, we can see EV tractors, food trucks, etc. That is, electric vehicles are now marking their entry into the Indian Automotive markets. On that note, read Ms Bunisha KhajaMohaideen, Co-Founder, Terabite Ekarts talk about how her startup is revolutionizing street vendors with the adoption of EV.

What is Terabite Ekarts about?

Terabite Ekarts is the perfect blend of sustainability and eco-friendly e-vehicles. Launched in 2020, we aim to address today's environmental and health concerns. These technology-powered, electric built street food carts are set to bring a revolution to the concept of “unorganized and unhygienic” street vending and to race towards a zero-emission society by maximizing EV adoption through the application-driven smart electric vehicle.

We envisage empowering rural, women, veteran street vendors who are at the bottom of the social pyramid. TE offers E-foodkarts with technology and solutions that can help them become streetpreneur not just Street vendors.

How did you come up with the idea?

In India, around 41B$ of Streetfood Market is completely unorganized and untapped. More than 65% of street vendors lack clean infrastructure and lesser exposure to technology. We strongly believe tapping this potential market with technology, solutions, and compliance will certainly empower the livelihood of street vendors in a much better way.

Also, Mass adoption of the EV Ecosystem is only possible if the market has application-driven electric vehicles. Hence, we have built an Electric Vehicle based Street Food Kart to address the unorganized street vending market and the Nation's Zero Emission E-mobility Goals.

Who are your consumers? What is your business/market growth?

Our direct consumers are street vendors and indirect consumers are street food lovers. Our prime focus is on street food commerce. At present, there are more than 20 Million street food vendors in India. Out of which 65% are unorganized and we envisage organizing this sector with our technology-driven food karts.

What cities are you in, presently?

The company has launched the pilot of their first variant TERADOSA in Gujarat in Jan 2021 and has already received 100+ National and International Pre-booking queries, 50+ Express of Interest (EOI) from renowned food chains. The company plans to explore the scope of expanding Pan India through distribution or channel partnership from April 2021 Onwards.

What are your Post-Covid plans?

The company is working on various concepts/Programs to offer low-cost e-food karts to the street vendors. Notably, we have come up with a subscription-based asset lite model to help street vendors to run -their business without owing the ekart.

Funding

We are a bootstrapped startup. So far, we have tested the concept with the prototype vehicle after strong the market research, and we are in the fundraising phase to take our vision forward.