Exponent Energy launches a fintech and asset management venture, ‘Exponent One’, with financing veteran Sandeep Divakaran as Co-Founder and CEO

Exponent Energy, a Bengaluru-based energy-tech company, announced a 360-degree fintech and asset management business venture, Exponent One, aimed at addressing a key barrier to scaling commercial EV adoption: access to viable financing. Financing and mobility veteran Sandeep Divakaran will helm the new venture as Co-founder and CEO. 

Exponent Energy has built a deep energy ecosystem in commercial EVs by solving charging speed, battery reliability, and high-uptime operations resulting in deep energy intelligence in the real world of commercial mobility. While EV technology has advanced significantly, adoption continues to be constrained by access to viable financing.

Exponent One is designed to address this gap through a 360-degree underwriting and asset management platform built specifically for commercial EVs leveraging the above energy intelligence. This platform aims to bring financing parity between EVs and ICE commercial vehicles by offering adaptive financing and risk-sharing through assurance and buybacks. In partnership with traditional financiers, Exponent One intends to deliver large-scale EV financing for commercial operators. The financing arm to work exclusively with Commercial Electric Vehicles - three wheelers, four-wheelers/ LCV and buses/ trucks- supporting driver-owners and fleets from ownership to lifecycle management to upgrades. 

Sandeep Divakaran, with over two decades of experience across intersection financial, leasing and mobility (CXO roles at Ola and evfin by Greaves), will lead the company as Co Founder and CEO to build-out a full-stack fintech and asset management platform.

Talking about the financing venture, Sandeep, said, “Commercial Vehicle driver-owners operate real-world businesses with daily variable earnings and limited buffers, yet lending models are still run on personal credit rails, with fixed monthly assumptions (EMIs). This rigid approach, focuses on only output metrics of timely payments, and hence fails the driver and leads to the ecosystem viewing commercial EV financing as risky.

At Exponent One, we believe in something fundamental: if the driver-owner fails, the system fails.

Our vision is to enable sustainable micro-entrepreneurship in electric mobility by building financing that adapts to real world earnings and not monthly averages, manages asset risk, provides buffers and gives drivers the confidence to switch and grow with EVs. Our adaptive lending model focuses on input metrics - asset quality, charging patterns, energy consumption, giving us the ability to differentiate between bad luck and bad intent and help support driver-owners through their circle of life.”

Built on Exponent’s energy intelligence, Exponent One’s AI-based adaptive financing stack enables access to livelihoods. Insurance is embedded to respond meaningfully to health and asset shocks, while assured buybacks create a strong secondary market that adds a critical layer of assurance for commercial vehicle owners and partner financiers. Savings, top-up loans, and upgrade opportunities support drivers’ aspirations to grow, progress, and move forward.

Elaborating further on the vision, Arun Vinayak, Founder and CEO, Exponent Energy, said, 

“Energy in EVs is an upfront capex problem, hence viable-financing products are needed to transform this higher capex to meaningful opex benefits to the driver-owners. 

Electric Commercial Vehicles are fundamentally energy assets. Our ability to influence battery life and manage them on a daily basis with real time energy data gives us an edge in understanding these assets better and in knowing their residual value. EVs are digital, earnings are digital and the energy stack with Exponent is digital, and all these input metrics layered with innovations in AI tech, enhances our ability to contextually underwrite and support the driver-owners through their circle of life. This is a first of its kind partnership, with energy and financing coming together to provide integrated adaptive finance and asset management solutions. We’re excited to have Sandeep lead this effort to build the financial layer needed to address the commercial EV financing gap.Together, Exponent Energy will power the assets and Exponent One will power the driver-owner.“

Exponent One has also raised $2 million in pre-seed funding from AdvantEdge Founders to accelerate the early rollout and expand its presence across key commercial EV hubs, bringing adaptive financing to a wider base of driver-owners.  

Kunal Khattar, Founder, AdvantEdge Founders, said, “Commercial EV scale in India isn't just a technology challenge; it's a data and capital challenge. Lenders must understand how these assets actually earn and age to unlock true scale. At AdvantEdge, we’re backing Exponent One because they’ve replaced ICE-era assumptions with real-time operational intelligence, aligning financing with daily earnings and long-term asset performance. By building a durable financial layer tailored to the EV ownership lifecycle, they are addressing the core risk mismatches that have held this industry back. We believe this is the missing piece that will finally move electric fleets from pilot to mass adoption.“