Electric vehicle start-up Ather Energy is eyeing $1.6 billion valuation as it looks to go public by the end of March or early next month, according to sources.

The Hero MotorCorp-backed unicorn is expected to file an updated draft red-herring prospectus this month, sources said. The size of the IPO is not known. Ather declined to comment.

Founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain at IIT Madras’ incubation centre in 2013, Ather is India’s fourth-largest electric scooter maker after Bajaj Auto, Ola Electric and TVS Motor Company.

Ather Energy filed IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in September 2024, for which it received approval in December 2024. With the financial statement disclosed in the DRHP, the company has to launch its IPO before May 12, 2025, as earnings figures cannot be older than 135 days. If Ather misses the May 12 deadline, it will have to include December quarter earnings in the offer document.

The proposed IPO of the Bengaluru-headquartered pure-play EV manufacturer is a combination of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to ₹3,100 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 2.2 crore equity shares by the selling shareholders.

The company plans to utilise the net proceeds towards funding of capital expenditure requirements for establishment of an electric two-wheeler factory in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for ₹927.2 crore; investment in research and development worth ₹750 crore; repayment or pre-payment, in full or part, of certain borrowings availed by the company (₹378.2 crore); expenditure towards marketing initiatives (₹300 crore); and general corporate purposes.

The company’s current electric two-wheeler portfolio comprises two product lines – the Ather 450 line, which caters to customers seeking performance scooters, and the Ather Rizta line, which is targeted at the family. Over half of the automaker’s demand comes from Rizta.

While Ola Electric, TVS and Bajaj are have a wide dealership network running into thousands of outlets, Ather only has about 208 showrooms. But after the launch of its family scooter, the company is ramping up its distribution network.

“Rizta has opened up hundreds of cities where it is now viable for Ather to open up an exclusive dealership which we did not have in the past. It was difficult to have a standalone Ather dealership in Tier-2-3 town with Ather 450. With Rizta, these places have opened up crazily,” Mehta recently told Fortune India.

While Ather Energy only sells e-scooters currently, the company is developing a motorcycle platform called Zenith. It is also working on a new platform for mass market scooters. The second scooter platform is meant for a more scalable series of products.