What does it take to build an EV in a country that had no supply chain, no ecosystem, and no conviction that world-class hardware could be engineered locally from scratch?

In this episode of Destiny Avenged, Tarun Mehta takes us back to the true origins of Ather — long before the scooters, the charging grid, or the brand India now knows.

It begins inside IIT Madras’ CFI lab, where a new culture of weekend building, late-night experiments, and first-principles engineering quietly took hold. Tarun and Swapnil spent years sleeping on yoga mats in the department, teaching themselves battery design, building swappable packs, and prototyping chargers.

But one insight changed everything: India didn’t want batteries. It wanted a world-class electric scooter.
That leap — from component to full-stack — is what eventually became Ather Energy.

This conversation dives deep into:

• How CFI and IIT Madras accidentally engineered a startup culture
• Why Ather took five years before launching anything
• The battery-first approach and the pivot to full-stack EVs
• Why building hardware requires long gestation and no shortcuts
• The engineering advantages EVs unlock that ICE can never match
• Why Ather chose the hardest possible path — and how it paid off

Chapters:

00:00 – Building Ather’s first batteries
02:23 – How IIT Madras accidentally created a startup factory
06:03 – Quitting jobs, sleeping on yoga mats, and early swappable battery ideas
09:11 – Pitching the full scooter & why deep tech isn’t a capital problem

If you’ve ever wondered how an engineering-first company gets built in India, this is the blueprint.

🎧 Watch the full episode and explore more founder stories in Season 4: Destiny Avenged.

Season Partners:

IDFC FIRST Bank and Ultrahuman (Blume portco)