Nikhil Kamath's ‘sh*t marketing’ jibe at Ather Energy gets a witty comeback from Bengaluru CEO

A day after Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath took a friendly dig at Ather Energy and said he did not get a discount on an electric scooter that he bought from the Bengaluru-based startup, the co-founder of the company had a witty comeback.

Kamath, who is in investor in Ather Energy, took to social media on Monday to explain why he decided to placed his bets on the electric vehicle (EV)-maker despite its shortcomings in marketing its own products.

“Every one of us has pluses and minuses, Ather has sh*t marketing but great product (sorry Tarun). PS: I bought this scooter at MRP, Tarun (Mehta) didn't even give me a discount,” Kamath jokingly said in a post on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).

Tarun Mehta, co-founder of Ather Energy, took to X a day later, sharing the iconic meme featuring Pakistani cricket fan Sarim Akhtar.

“Marketing team be like ��isko discount hi de dena chahiye tha (we should've given him a discount)'," Mehta said, responding to Kamath's post on X.

Take a look at the meme Tarun Mehta shared on X:

Nikhil Kamath, one of India's youngest billionaires, bought a significant part of Ather Energy's holding from Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal, the Economic Times reported in April.

The 37-year-old has a net worth of $3.1 billion, according to the Forbes Billionaires List 2024. His net worth grew from $1.1 billion in 2023 to over $3 billion in 2024.

What Nikhil Kamath said about Ather Energy and Indian brands

Promoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India campaign, Nikhil Kamath emphasised on his desire to see more Indians preferring to buy Indian brands over foreign brands.

“Enough of the foreign franchise is ‘better’, clothes, jewelry, food, auto, content, shoes, and just about everything else,” Nikhil Kamath said in the social media post.