Vanmoof wants to “reinvent every component of the bicycle”
The Dutch e-bike start-up Vanmoof has received its largest investment to date with 128 million US dollars: Among other things, the company wants to reinvent the way hardware and software components are manufactured.
Vanmoof is popular with investors: the Dutch pedelec manufacturer had already completed several successful investment rounds in 2020, which most recently brought in 34 million euros. Now the company is announcing its largest Series C round to date. That raised Vanmoof $ 128 million and was led by Hillhouse Investment, an Asia-based private equity firm. In total, Vanmoof raised $ 182 million in two years, which it claims makes it the most heavily funded e-bike company in the world.
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Vanmoof wants to reinvent the bicycle
On the one hand, the manufacturer wants to use the fresh windfall to ramp up its production. On the other hand, Vanmoof wants to use the investment in “reinventing the manufacture of hardware and software components”. In this way, the manufacturer wants to make it easier for consumers to access high-quality, high-tech e-bikes.
“We reinvent, design and redesign every component of the bicycle. This has never happened before and will forever change the way a bike is made, sold and serviced, ”explains Taco Carlier, Co-Founder of Vanmoof. This strategy is designed to help the company “get ten million people on our bikes in the next five years”.
Vanmoof S3. (Photo: t3n)
Vanmoof with 50 locations worldwide
Most recently, Vanmoof had changed its corporate strategy a little and went from being a direct mail order company to customers. In the past year, the company expanded its retail and service presence from 8 to 50 locations worldwide.
After the rapid growth in the German market, the US is now the fastest growing market for Vanmoof. There is no sign of an end to growth: According to forecasts, the global e-bike market will reach a value of around 48 billion dollars by 2028 – twice as much as was forecast before the Covid 19 pandemic.
In August, Vanmoof published a software update for its S3 (test) and X3, with which the automatic shift can optionally be switched to a manual one can be. With the new function, Vanmoof drivers can: change gear inside according to their own wishes. Because the automatic solution is not always ideal for the terrain.
