Startup Deep Dive : Okinawa Autotech — from 13% market share to a FAME-II clawback

In May 2019, Okinawa Autotech became the first electric two-wheeler maker in India to get a government subsidy approved under the FAME-II scheme. Six years later, the same scheme is why the company nearly folded: the Ministry of Heavy Industries wants ₹116.8 crore ($12.2 million) of that money back, and Okinawa’s market share has collapsed from 13.2% to under 0.3%. A company that once out-sold every electric scooter maker but Ola Electric now sells fewer units in a full year than some rivals move in a week.

The fall did not happen because a bigger competitor out-built Okinawa. It happened because two of its own scooters caught fire, the government it depended on for subsidy cash turned into a creditor, and a swathe of former employees and dealers say they were left unpaid and holding faulty stock. This piece pulls apart what Okinawa Autotech sold, how it grew fast, why it broke, and what is verifiably left of it today.

Quick facts

What they do

Okinawa Autotech makes low-speed and high-speed electric scooters, sold mainly to individual retail buyers in India through a dealership network, with a smaller line for business fleets. Its scooters sit in the mass-market segment, competing on price and range against Ola Electric, TVS Motor’s iQube, Bajaj Chetak and Ather Energy. The company has also talked about electric motorcycles and a cruiser developed with its Italian partner Tacita, though as of September 2026 its retail volumes are almost entirely two-wheeler scooters (Okinawa Scooters product pages; Rideapart, January 2023).

The origin

Jeetender Sharma spent nearly two decades inside the two-wheeler industry before starting Okinawa. He began at LML Scooters, then joined Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India in 2001 as part of its original 50-person launch team, eventually heading supplier quality assurance for Honda’s two-wheeler business across India, Europe and South-East Asia (The Better India, undated feature on Okinawa Autotech). He left Honda in 2015 as conversations inside the industry were turning toward electric mobility, a shift the government’s first FAME scheme had signalled from 2012.

Sharma’s own market research, conducted over roughly six months after leaving Honda, found that Indian buyers saw electric two-wheelers as a compromise product: slow, built on lead-acid batteries, and reliable only for short hops. Okinawa’s founding bet was that a high-speed, lithium-ion scooter, priced and serviced like a normal two-wheeler rather than a niche gadget, could change that perception (The Better India). The company took its name from the Japanese city of Okinawa, which Sharma had visited during his Honda years and associated with a sustainable, long-lived way of life (The Better India).

The struggle years

Okinawa’s crisis did not arrive as one event. It built across three separate failures stacked on top of each other.

The first crack was mechanical. In March 2022, an Okinawa Okhi e-scooter belonging to a Vellore, Tamil Nadu family caught fire while charging overnight; the videographer Duraivarma and his 13-year-old daughter Mohana Preethi died of suffocation in the resulting house fire, with a short circuit suspected as the cause (Deccan Herald, 26 March 2022; ETV Bharat, 26 March 2022). It was one of a cluster of Indian EV scooter fires that spring, and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways asked the DRDO’s Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety to investigate across manufacturers (Evo India; Rushlane). Okinawa recalled 3,215 PraisePro units on 18 April 2022 to inspect battery packs for loose connections, offering the check free at dealerships (ZigWheels, 18 April 2022).

The second crack was regulatory and came from the same subsidy that had built the company’s early scale. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office, acting for the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, opened a probe into Okinawa alongside Hero Electric and Benling India over an estimated ₹297 crore in FAME-II incentives the three had allegedly claimed without meeting the scheme’s local-sourcing rule (Autocar Professional; Deccan Herald probe report). In April–May 2023 the Ministry of Heavy Industries de-registered Okinawa from FAME-II and ordered it to repay ₹116.8 crore, one part of a combined ₹249 crore demand on Okinawa and Hero Electric (Business Standard, 1 May 2023; Inc42). Okinawa’s registrations fell to roughly 3,217 units in April 2023, down sharply from a record 14,946 units in October 2022, as the subsidy that had kept its retail price competitive was pulled (Inc42, “EV Maker Okinawa Autotech In Talks To Raise $100 Mn Amid Funding Winter, FAME-II Crisis”). The company challenged the de-registration and recovery order in the Delhi High Court; the government told the court in December 2023 that Okinawa had itself “acknowledged” violating the scheme, and the court declined to grant interim relief from repayment (Business Standard, 8 December 2023). Later, in April 2024, a Ministry of Heavy Industries committee separately cleared Okinawa of breaching the scheme’s Phased Manufacturing Programme localisation guidelines, finding it had achieved full localisation by 31 May 2022 — a finding about the localisation compliance question, not a cancellation of the ₹116.8 crore recovery demand, which continued through litigation (BusinessToday, 27 April 2024; Inc42).

The third crack was internal. Through 2024, former employees said Okinawa had not paid salaries since February that year, and dealers said they were receiving vehicles with missing parts (YourStory, August 2024, as reported by E-Vehicle Info). Headcount fell from 597 employees in 2023 to 466 in 2024, a pattern that continued to 429 by 2026 (Revelio Labs employee-count tracking, cited via Tracxn).

The turning point

The clearest single before-and-after marker is the FY23-to-FY24 collapse in the Registrar of Companies filings. In FY23, Okinawa sold 95,931 units and booked ₹1,144 crore in revenue from operations, holding a 13.17% share of India’s electric-scooter market. By FY24, the year the FAME-II de-registration and recovery order took effect, unit sales had fallen to 20,873 and revenue to ₹182 crore — an 87% drop — while market share fell to 2.20% and the company swung to a ₹52 crore loss (Entrackr, “Okinawa’s revenue nosedives 87% to Rs 182 Cr in FY24”). The subsidy withdrawal did not just remove a discount; it removed the price parity that had let Okinawa compete with scooters backed by deeper balance sheets, and the fire recalls and unpaid-salary reports compounded the loss of buyer and dealer confidence in the same window.

The money behind it

Okinawa was built mostly on Jeetender Sharma’s own capital in its early years, with outside institutional funding arriving later and in modest size relative to Indian EV peers such as Ola Electric.

• Total raised: reported at approximately $29.4 million across five rounds from eight investors (Tracxn company profile aggregation, 2026) — a company-disclosed, audited total is not public.
• June 2025 round: ₹60 crore (about $7 million) from existing backer Dhruv Khush Business Ventures, via a private placement of shares at ₹255.21 apiece, board-approved 17 June 2025; proceeds earmarked for working capital and debt repayment (Inc42; Entrackr, June 2025).
• 2023 fundraising attempt: Okinawa disclosed it was in talks to raise $100 million (about ₹800 crore) from private equity investors to fund a third, 1-million-unit Rajasthan plant and in-house powertrain manufacturing; the round, as reported, did not close at that size — the company’s next disclosed raise, in 2025, was the much smaller ₹60 crore round above (Inc42).
• Backers named in aggregator records: Hindustan Media Ventures and Black Hawk Properties are listed among Okinawa’s investor base (Tracxn/Crunchbase aggregation) — neither company has published details of what its investment changed operationally, so that detail is omitted here.

What is verifiable is the trend, not a single headline valuation: fundraising ambition scaled down from a ₹800 crore PE talk in 2023 to a ₹60 crore top-up from an existing investor in 2025, with the stated purpose shifting from expansion to debt repayment.

How it makes money

Okinawa earns money the way most Indian two-wheeler makers do: it manufactures and sells scooters outright through dealers, rather than running a subscription or leasing model.

• Revenue in: outright sale of electric scooters to retail buyers through a dealer network, which peaked at roughly 540 outlets around 2023 (Inc42).
• Costs out (FY24, Registrar of Companies filing via Entrackr): procurement/material cost of ₹171 crore (down from ₹859 crore in FY23 as volumes fell), employee benefit expenses of ₹26 crore, advertising of ₹4 crore, and combined rent, warranty, freight and overheads of ₹251 crore.
• Where the margin sits: in FY22, when volumes were rising, Okinawa’s EBITDA margin was a reported 15.21% and ROCE a reported 103.27% (CARE Ratings-linked filing data, via Entrackr, November 2022) — evidence that the model can be profitable at scale. By FY24, EBITDA had turned negative and ROCE to a reported -102%, showing how quickly the same fixed manufacturing and dealer-network cost base turns punishing once volumes fall (Entrackr, FY24 filing analysis).
• The part people get wrong: Okinawa’s early profitability was not pure product economics — it was built in a window (2019–2022) when the FAME-II subsidy narrowed the price gap between Okinawa’s electric scooters and petrol alternatives. When that subsidy was withdrawn in 2023, the underlying unit economics without the subsidy were exposed at the same time as the fire and payment-default headlines, making it hard to isolate how much of the volume drop was subsidy-driven versus trust-driven.

The numbers

Figures below are revenue from operations and net profit/(loss) as disclosed in Registrar of Companies filings, reported by Entrackr. Unit: ₹ crore.

• FY21 to FY22: revenue grew roughly 7x and profit rose about 16x, as Okinawa scaled after its first FAME-II approval (Entrackr, November 2022, citing CARE Ratings-linked filings).
• FY22 to FY23: revenue kept climbing to a peak of ₹1,144 crore and 95,931 units, a 13.17% market share, even as EBITDA margin came under pressure (Entrackr).
• FY23 to FY24: revenue fell 87% and units fell 78%, coinciding with the FAME-II de-registration taking effect (Entrackr, “Okinawa’s revenue nosedives 87% to Rs 182 Cr in FY24”).
• FY25 (partial-year data, no audited revenue figure disclosed as of this writing): units sold fell further to 3,548, a 0.31% market share, and calendar-year 2025 Vahan registrations of 1,266 units put share at just 0.23% (Entrackr; Vahan-data reporting cited in trade coverage, 2025) — cut from the revenue table above because no audited FY25 revenue figure has been published.

Where the money comes from

Okinawa does not publicly break out revenue by geography or channel in its filings, so the closest verifiable “split” is by sales channel and by how far its retail footprint has retreated.

• Retail dealer network: the overwhelming majority of volume, sold through a dealer network that stood at roughly 540 outlets in 2023 during the $100 million fundraising talks (Inc42) — a scale the company has not since restated.
• B2B/fleet: a smaller line, led by the Dual model launched in January 2021 as Okinawa’s first scooter built for business/fleet use (Wikipedia, citing company disclosures) — no separate fleet revenue figure is published.
• Experience centres: seven company-run “Galaxy Experience Centres” opened between December 2021 and September 2022 across Dehradun, Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Noida (Wikipedia) — a retail-brand push that predates the FY24 collapse and whose current operating status is not disclosed.
• The surprise: even as domestic retail volumes fell to a fraction of a percent of the market, Okinawa inaugurated its first European R&D centre in Italy in partnership with joint-venture partner Tacita, committing €25 million (about ₹220 crore) over three years toward new powertrain and product development, with the centre employing about 50 specialists (Okinawa Scooters company release; Indian Autos Blog, 2023/2026 coverage) — a capital commitment to future products running in parallel with a near-total loss of current domestic market share.

The risks

• Unresolved subsidy liability: the ₹116.8 crore FAME-II recovery order was not cancelled by the April 2024 localisation clean chit — that finding addressed a different compliance question — and the Delhi High Court had already declined to block recovery on cash-crunch grounds in December 2023, leaving the repayment obligation live and litigated (Business Standard, 8 December 2023; BusinessToday, 27 April 2024).
• Trust deficit from safety incidents: the March 2022 Vellore fire, which killed two people, and the subsequent 3,215-unit PraisePro recall are the kind of safety failure that is slow to unwind in a category (electric two-wheelers) already fighting range and reliability perceptions among first-time Indian buyers (Deccan Herald; ZigWheels).
• Working-capital and payment risk: reports of salaries unpaid since February 2024 and dealers receiving incomplete vehicles point to a cash-flow squeeze severe enough to disrupt basic operations, not just growth plans — the kind of risk that compounds itself as departing staff and unpaid dealers further erode service and delivery quality (YourStory, August 2024, via E-Vehicle Info).

The takeaway

Okinawa’s rise shows that a subsidy can manufacture demand faster than a company can build the trust to keep it. FAME-II gave Okinawa a price advantage that took it to a 13% market share in three years; when the government decided the company had not earned that subsidy honestly, the advantage vanished in one fiscal year, and there was no brand loyalty deep enough to cushion the fall. The lesson travels beyond electric scooters: any business whose growth curve tracks a policy incentive more closely than it tracks repeat customers is, in effect, renting its market position from the state, and rent can be called in without notice.

Frequently asked questions

Is Okinawa Autotech still operating in September 2026?

Yes. Registrar of Companies records show it as an active private company, and it inaugurated a European R&D centre with partner Tacita, but its Indian retail sales have fallen to a fraction of a percent of the electric-scooter market (Tracxn; Okinawa Scooters company release).

Why does Okinawa have to repay FAME-II subsidy money?

The Ministry of Heavy Industries found Okinawa had not met the scheme’s local-sourcing requirements on components such as motors, chargers and converters, and ordered recovery of ₹116.8 crore; Okinawa’s court challenge to block that recovery was rejected in December 2023 (Business Standard, 8 December 2023; E-Vehicle Info).

Did anyone die in an Okinawa scooter fire?

Yes. In March 2022, a Vellore, Tamil Nadu father and his 13-year-old daughter died of suffocation after their Okinawa Okhi scooter caught fire while charging overnight; Okinawa recalled 3,215 PraisePro units the following month (Deccan Herald; ZigWheels).

How much has Okinawa’s market share fallen?

From 13.17% in FY23 to 2.20% in FY24, then to 0.31% in FY25 and roughly 0.23% based on calendar-year 2025 Vahan registrations of 1,266 units — a near-total exit from India’s electric-scooter market by volume (Entrackr).

Who founded Okinawa Autotech and why the name?

Jeetender Sharma, a nearly 14-year Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India veteran, founded Okinawa in 2015 with Rupali Sharma. He named it after the Japanese city of Okinawa, which he had visited during his Honda years and associated with sustainable living (The Better India).

Sources

Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).

• Entrackr, “Okinawa’s revenue nosedives 87% to Rs 182 Cr in FY24,” 2025
• Entrackr, “Okinawa’s revenue crosses Rs 800 Cr in FY22, profits rise 16X,” November 2022
• Entrackr, “Exclusive: Okinawa secures $7 Mn from existing investor,” June 2025
• Inc42, “EV Maker Okinawa To Raise INR 60 Cr From Existing Backer,” 2025
• Inc42, “EV Maker Okinawa Autotech In Talks To Raise $100 Mn Amid Funding Winter, FAME-II Crisis,” 2023
• Inc42, “Govt Committee Gives Clean Chit To Hero Electric, Okinawa Autotech In FAME Violation Case,” April 2024
• Business Standard, “Govt slaps Rs 249-crore fine on Hero Electric, Okinawa,” 1 May 2023
• Business Standard, “Okinawa acknowledged violating FAME scheme: Govt in Delhi High Court,” 8 December 2023
• BusinessToday, “Hero Electric, Okinawa Autotech get clean chit in Fame scheme violation case,” 27 April 2024
• Autocar Professional, “SFIO raids Hero Electric, Benling, Okinawa for FAME subsidy misappropriation”
• E-Vehicle Info, “Okinawa Autotech Blacklisted? FAME-II Violations, Unpaid Salaries, Faulty Deliveries,” 2024 (citing YourStory reporting)
• Deccan Herald, “Electric scooter explosion in Vellore kills father and daughter,” 26 March 2022
• ETV Bharat, “TN e-bike catches fire while charging: Man, daughter suffocate to death,” 26 March 2022
• ZigWheels, “Okinawa Recalls Electric Scooters Amid Fire Incidents,” 18 April 2022
• The Better India, “Inspired by Japan, How This Gurugram Company’s E-Scooters Became Bestsellers in India”
• Wikipedia, “Okinawa Autotech” (company milestones, plants, experience centres)
• Okinawa Scooters (company release), “Okinawa Autotech Inaugurates Its First-Ever European R&D Centre In Partnership With Tacita”
• Tracxn, “Okinawa — Company Profile, Funding and Investors,” 2026 (aggregated funding total and headcount data, cited as reported)

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