STILRIDE, a Swedish electromobility, and industrial tech startup, has announced that it has raised €3.7M from both new and existing angels, including Gustaf Hagman, Saeid Esmaeilizadeh and Tobias Emanuelsson (founder and CEO at Polar Structure).
The Swedish company also allows individuals to contribute through a Crowdcube community fundraiser, which will end on 15th November.
This latest injection of funding will help STILRIDE further refine and develop the STILFOLD technology and revolutionise sustainable design and manufacturing using “green steel.”
The funding will also help STILRIDE explore new technology applications and solve sustainability challenges with fresh thinking and innovative design. The announcement comes over ten months after raising £2.5 million in seed round.
Typically, scooters built around a tubular frame with a plastic body layered on top can be a problem as it requires several components & suppliers, which might lead to an increased environmental impact.
Industrial origami design
Founded in 2019 by best friends Tue Beijer and Jonas Nyvang in Stockholm, STILRIDE is pioneering sustainable manufacturing, which involves using robotic arms to fold steel over curves to form light, strong and durable new shapes.
Called STILFOLD, the company claims to make smarter use of resources and minimises waste, significantly reducing the climate impact of production compared to traditional manufacturing.
The first product to be built using STILFOLD is an e-motorcycle, the Sport Utility Scooter One (SUS1), which will go on sale to the mass market next year, confirms the company.
To reduce the product’s carbon footprint, STILRIDE aims to create a production process, which allows the steel sheets to be flat-packed and shipped to local factories across Europe where they will be folded and fitted with a hub motor and battery pack. Already, the climate impact of developing the SUS1’s chassis is 50% lower than that of traditional scooters.
STILRIDE has also announced partnerships with Swedish space innovation startup ISAAC – through which they’ll explore potential applications for their technology in outer space – and electric car company POLESTAR, with whom the team is collaborating to build the world’s first climate-neutral car.
They are now a team of 25 from across the globe, including Sweden, India, Turkey, Brazil, and the States. The company also claims to have 12% of female employees.
Currently, the company has over 135,000 people on the waiting list for their first e-motorcycle.
Jonas Nyvang, CEO and co-founder at STILRIDE, comments, “We’ve been blown away by the interest in our technology and our first e-mobility launch. We truly believe we have the power to change the future of sustainable design and manufacturing, and this new investment will enable us to push the boundaries of our technology even further, even sooner than we’d hoped.”
He adds, “We’ve had unprecedented support from new and existing investors and our community of technology, design, and motorcycle enthusiasts, which has helped us get to this point. It is why we wanted to open this round-up to the public. We’re excited to be able to allow our community to own a small part of the company via Crowdcube’s platform and have a genuine stake in our future as we continue to grow. It is a really exciting time for us, and we can’t wait to bring more of you along for the ride.”
