Dutch e-bike innovator VanMoof announced a $128 million Series C minority investment in a funding round led by Hillhouse Investment, an Asia-based private equity firm. Alongside Hillhouse Investment, the Series C funding includes commitments from Gillian Tans, Chairwoman of Booking.com, and existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Felix Capital, Balderton Capital, and TriplePoint Capital.

VanMoof believes that the new round of funding is said to be a show of confidence in the company, whose mission is to take its industry-first, vertically integrated supply chain and advanced tech to maturity—shifting from vertical to circular integration. The company plans to continue reinventing how components are made and bikes are assembled to make riding a high-quality e-bike more affordable and readily available to consumers.

Founded in 2009 by Dutch brothers Taco and Ties Carlier with a vision of the perfect city bike, VanMoof currently offers a high-tech and feature-rich experience for a worldwide community of 200,000 riders. The company’s signature integrated frames mirror the fully integrated end-to-end company, which has control of everything from design to production, sales, and after-service.

Having raised a total of $182 million in less than two years, the brothers are thrilled to have entered a new phase of growth that can “help us realize that vision and share Amsterdam’s biking culture with even more people around the world,” according to a blog post on the company’s website. They hope the $128 million Series C investment “will make our e-bikes more accessible to our riders than ever before—a key aspect in our mission to get the next billion on bikes worldwide.”

“We’re reinventing, redesigning, and re-engineering every component of the bicycle,” said Taco Carlier. “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 our investors share in our vision of a smarter and cleaner mobility future.”

VanMoof believes that the funds cement it as the category leader and tipping point brand to drive worldwide e-bike adoption and help further its rapid global expansion. The company will use the funds to increase its production capabilities, continue the development of new technology, improve bike specs and reliability, and break down more barriers to cycling.

“With VanMoof’s unique approach to manufacturing and innovative, consumer-first technology, we are excited about its e-bikes’ potential in engaging millions of riders around the world to adopt active transportation into their commute and to build a healthy lifestyle,” said Haoyu Shen, Partner at Hillhouse Investment. “We are committed to contributing to advancing climate solutions.”

According to VanMoof, global demand for e-bikes continues to skyrocket as city dwellers reevaluate their transportation choices. How people choose to get around the world’s largest cities has taken on a new level of urgency. Many cities have made major investments in car-free futures with revamped streetscapes and more cycling infrastructure during the 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. According to the company, the latest projections expect the e-bike market to surpass $46 billion in the next six years, with a growth rate now twice as high as predicted before COVID-19.

The VanMoof team has leveraged unparalleled product focus to inspire a movement, said Colin Hanna, Partner at Balderton: “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.”

The company’s new range of bikes, the S3 and X3, when launched in mid-2020 offered “massively improved performance and tech” at 60% of the price of their predecessors—the electrified S2 and X2. The “radical price point” was the result of a tipping point in scale and taking ownership of the entire supply chain, building its own hyper-efficient manufacturing and distribution system. The new level of ownership and control, together with a direct-to-consumer sales model, allowed the company to produce e-bikes at a more affordable price.

“We’re proud to be introducing our most advanced e-bikes at a price point that has been impossible until now,” said Ties Carlier, at the time. “The wave of demand in the past years has empowered us to scale up massively, and now we can pass those benefits onto the next generation of riders.”

The bikes’ redesigned power system gives a faster, more responsive ride. An Intelligent Smart Cartridge responds to real-time motor feedback, giving you more range from a single charge. That range with a 504-W·h battery capacity is 37-93 mi (60-150 km), depending on the choice of full power or economy mode extremes.

A revamped 59-N·m (44 lb·ft) Turbo Boost delivers about double the torque at the press of a button. The automatic four-speed e-shifter has customizable intelligent shifting levels for a more seamless riding experience.

Kick Lock secures the bike with the tap of a toe, immobilizing the rear wheel and activating the onboard theft defense. The bikes are said to be the first on the market with brakes designed for urban use—the hydraulic system being more durable, powerful, and maintenance-free.

An upgraded app allows deep customization options (including bell sound), along with rider recognition, location tracking, report-stolen feature, and remote lockdown mode. The S3 and X3 are the first e-bikes to be Apple Find My-enabled from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

As a result of rider feedback, the company this year introduced a removable PowerBank that gives riders up to 62 mi (100 km) extra range. It brings the S3 and X3 range closer to that of an average electric car, making the e-bike company’s case for car replacement more compelling.

As a detachable accessory that can be easily charged indoors, the PowerBank is designed not only to extend a ride but also allow riders to charge their bikes more easily. It can charge the bike’s main battery both standing still or while riding, and it packs a big power upgrade—almost doubling the bike’s energy capacity.

“This is one of our most significant innovations to date,” said Ties Carlier. “It balances our core philosophies of integration and accessibility and ensures every one of our riders now gets the best of both worlds: a hassle-free way to charge your VanMoof and a supercharged cross-city cycling scope.”

VanMoof brand stores can be found in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tokyo, with expansion planned to 50 cities worldwide through dedicated service hubs by the end of 2021.