Sathya Yalamanchili, Deepak M.V., 

Last year, when the national lockdown upended the auto industry, Hyderabad-based Etrio managed to sell over 200 of its electric three-wheelers, Touro. It also gave the founders an important lesson: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. That explains the shift to manufacturing in 2020, from their genesis of retrofitting fuel-powered vehicles with electric engines. Etrio, founded in 2017, now boasts of India’s widest range of electric three-wheelers and clocked revenue of ₹5 crore in FY21, while competing with players like Mahindra and Piaggio. Yalamanchilli (right), a gearhead since his teens, is now seed investor in his own right, and a board member-cum-adviser to Etrio. The operational reins are held by Deepak, whose career spans from a sales manager at Tata Motors to a co-founder (in 2010) of management consultancy firm Prashaste. Under his watch, Etrio has a novel leasing plan to enable big logistics companies to hit their electrification goals, yet remain asset light. The company, which raised $3 million in a Series A round last year, also wants to enter the fourwheeler space and is eyeing pole position in the light commercial vehicle segment.