Zyp Technologies, a Pakistani electric vehicles startup, announced on Tuesday that it had raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Indus Valley Capital (IVC).

“With this key investment, Zyp is driving mass-market adoption of electric mobility in Pakistan by addressing three key hurdles to adoption: high upfront cost, range anxiety and long charging times,” a press release issued by the startup said.

“Zyp achieves this through their indigenously developed product portfolio that includes purpose-built electric motorcycles, innovative battery swap stations, proprietary and patent pending battery architecture, cloud software and mobile apps,” the press release added.

The company said that in light of climate change and rising fuel prices in the country, the urgency to electrify transportation “has never been greater”.

“Zyp’s solutions enable motorcycle fleet operators to save up to 70 per cent on fuel costs and eliminate air polluting emissions, making their operations environmentally sustainable and profitable,” it added.

The company said it had had achieved “remarkable progress” in designing and building its “complete solution” and had already established an assembly line “capable of producing up to 8,000 motorcycles annually”.

Describing its electric bike, it said the Zyp Utility Motorcycle 2000 was a battery-swapping electric bike engineered to be “gender-neutral, focused on delivery riders, enabling comfortable day-long deliveries at a significantly reduced cost” in comparison with the options available in the market.

Zyp Technologies CEO and co-founder Hassan Khan said the country’s electric vehicle policy was the “triggering point which brought all founders together”, adding that upcoming governments must “hold and evolve the policy to reduce Pakistan’s dependence on oil and to help ensure our cities have clean air once again”.

Meanwhile, IVC founding partner Aatif Awan said Zyp Technologies was building “one of the most important products” the country needed to help solve the trade imbalance and high inflation.

“Zyp team has meticulously designed their electric motorbikes and battery swapping to perform well in the local environment, creating a remarkable indigenous solution we’re proud to back,” he was quoted as saying in the press release.