Vietnamese electric motorbike startup Dat Bike raises $8M led by Jungle Ventures – TechNode Global

Vietnam-based electric motorbike startup Dat Bike, has on Thursday announced an $8 million fundraise led by Singapore-based Jungle Ventures.

Dat Bike said in a statement that GSR Ventures and Delivery Hero Ventures also participated in the round, along with Wavemaker Partners and Innoven Capital. This brings the total funds raised by the company to $16.5 million.

Dat Bike intends to use the fresh funds towards building and improving tech and product, hiring across sales, support, research and development (R&D) and product teams to manage growing volumes, and invest in capacity building in its factories.

Going forward, Dat Bike will be increasing its factory capacity to meet the rising demand.

In addition the company has announced its plans to expand beyond Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang, to other Tier one cities like Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Nha Trang, Binh Duong, Can Tho in the coming months.

The startup is now getting ready to launch its latest model shortly.

“We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made so far, and we continue to strive to make electric vehicle performance at par and better than gasoline,

“With the fresh funds, we will be able to invest in building top-of-the-line manufacturing capabilities, scale production efficiently, and continuously improve our products for our consumers in Vietnam and beyond,” said Son Nguyen, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dat Bike.

Founded in 2019 by Son Nguyen, a software engineer from Silicon Valley, Dat Bike was built with a vision to drive mass adoption of green transportation and transform Vietnam’s vehicle market from petrol to electric.

Since launch, the consumer response to the motorbikes have been overwhelming and in the last 12 months alone Dat Bike’s revenue has increased 10 times.

Today, Dat Bike has opened three official stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang, with more stores in the pipeline.

Dat Bike’s journey so far has been marked with consistently launching industry best innovation in the market. It’s latest model Weaver 200 has a range of 200 km versus 50km of most electric vehicles (EVs), and is more powerful at 6kW versus 1.5 kW of other electric motorbikes. It also has a charging time of one hour for a 100 km charge and three hours for a full 200 km charge, compared to six to eight hours of other electric bikes.

Most recently Dat Bike also launched Dat Charge, an industry-first ultra fast charging station for two wheelers that reduces charging time by a third, by charging 100 km at an unbeatable 20 minutes, compared to 60 minutes or more for ordinary EV charging stations.

“This is our third investment in Dat Bike and we continue to be amazed by the incredible execution by the team. The growth is testament to the electric future that Son is building with Dat Bike,

“We are confident that Dat Bike will lead the transformation to green transportation, not only in the region, but also globally,” said My Tran, Vice President at Jungle Ventures.

Brendon Blacker, Managing Partner of Delivery Hero Ventures commented :”We are very excited to support Son and the Dat Bike team in their mission to electrify the two-wheeler industry, which is estimated to be about $25 billion in Southeast Asia.”

“Dat Bike have continuously demonstrated industry leading innovation, which has enabled them to compete with gas motorbikes both in terms of price and performance,

“The company’s mission resonates strongly with Delivery Hero’s ambitions to electrify its delivery fleet and create a more sustainable delivery industry,” he added.