A funding crisis has led to a grim scenario for electric motorcycle maker Tork Motors, its dealers and employees, multiple sources aware of the matter told ETAuto.
The Pune-based electric vehicle (EV) company, which currently sells one model Kratos R, has not been able to dispatch the vehicles to its dealers since December last year, five dealers that ETAuto talked to confirmed the same.
“We had been getting customer enquiries, but have stopped taking any fresh bookings since last month. The latest communication received from the company said we will get the fresh dispatch by June-end, but there has been no update as yet,” said one of the dealers on the condition of anonymity.
“We are in a lot of trouble. With no fresh dispatch for the past six months, the company is unresponsive and most customers have cancelled their bookings,” another dealer said.
A source very close to the matter said that production in the company's Chakan facility has been on a standstill since last year.
Multiple calls and messages from ETAuto to Kapil Shelke, Founder & CEO of Tork Motors, have gone unanswered.
According to the sources, several employees have left the company during the past two months. While the exact number of resignations could not be verified, multiple people have confirmed that the employees have not received their salaries for the past six months.
On July 18, a number of individuals in the company received a call from their department heads to serve the notice period of three months and find another job. While six months salaries are pending, there is no official communication from the HR, nor any promise of a severance package.
In February this year, media reports said that Tork Motors had raised around INR 50 crore in a fresh funding round. However, insiders suggest while the funding was on track, it got shelved at the last moment.
With subsidies withdrawn, EV startups in the industry have been facing tough times lately. An industry veteran ETAuto talked to suggested that funding is going to be a struggle for a lot of startups going forward, and consolidation is bound to happen in the years to come.
Founded in 2010, Tork Motors is also a powertrain manufacturer for two- and three-wheelers. Auto components major Bharat Forge holds the majority stake in the company. An email sent to Bharat Forge by ETAuto went unanswered. Other investors include Maxis Capital, industrialist Ratan Tata, and others.
Tork reported a 7X growth in operating revenue to INR 35.5 crore in FY23 when compared to INR 4.5 crore in FY22. However, losses widened 5.7X, rising to INR 47.9 crore in FY23 from INR 8.34 crore in FY22, according to data sourced from startup intelligence platform TheKredible.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
