Jen Andre 
- Portfolio News
- 21 November, 2024
The round, led by Hillhouse Investment, is the largest ever Series C for a European e-bike brand and brings VanMoof’s total raised to $182M in less than two years.
VanMoof was founded in 2009 by Taco and Ties Carlier, two Dutch brothers with a vision of the perfect city bike. Now their bikes are changing cities and leading the current wave of people choosing e-bikes. VanMoof’s sleek, multi-award-winning rides offer a high-tech and feature-rich experience for a devoted worldwide community of 150,000 riders and counting.The new round of funding is a significant show of confidence for VanMoof, with existing investors including Balderton also participating. Balderton led VanMoof’s Series A in 2020. VanMoof plans to use the funds to continue reinventing how components are made and bikes are assembled, which will make riding a high-quality e-bike even more affordable and readily available to the consumer.
We’re reinventing, redesigning, and re-engineering every component of the bicycle. It’s never been done before and will change how a bike is made, sold, and serviced forever. It will help us get 10 million people on our bikes in the next five years and Hillhouse believes in our vision of a smarter and cleaner mobility future.
Taco Carlier Co-founder, VanMoof
Taco Carlier, Co-founder of VanMoof
Global demand for e-bikes continues to skyrocket as city dwellers reevaluate their transport choices. In the wake of the recent IPCC report, how people choose to get around the world’s largest cities has taken on a new level of urgency. As the transportation sector generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions (29% of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2019), we find ourselves at a real moment in time that is set for change.
The global e-bike market is forecasted to be valued at around $48B by 2028
Many cities have made major investments in car-free futures with revamped streetscapes and more cycling infrastructure during lockdown, showing how COVID-19 has accelerated plans to get more urban commuters on bikes. As a result, significant funding has since been invested to open up the streets to cyclists. The latest projections expect the e-bike market to surpass $48 billion in the next six years, with a growth rate now twice as high as predicted before COVID-19.
Taco, Ties, and the team at VanMoof have leveraged unparalleled product focus to inspire a movement. That focus has enabled them to build a unique back to front platform, spanning Taipei to Amsterdam, that makes the world’s highest quality and most accessible e-bike. As global warming accelerates and COVID-19 persists the transformation of urban mobility has never been more urgent, both for the cities we call home and the planet more broadly.
