Son Nguyen, author and CEO of Dat Bike
Dat Bike, a Vietnamese startup with aspirations to turn into the top electric motorbike organization in Southeast Asia, has brought $2.6 million up in pre-Series A financing drove by Jungle Ventures. Made in Vietnam with for the most part homegrown parts, Dat Bike’s selling point is its capacity to rival gas motorbikes regarding estimating and execution. Its new financing is the first run through Jungle Ventures has put resources into the portability area and included investment from Wavemaker Partners, Hustle Fund and iSeed Ventures.
Founder and CEO Son Nguyen started figuring out how to assemble bicycles from scrap parts while filling in as a computer programmer in Silicon Valley. In 2018, he moved back to Vietnam and dispatched Dat Bike. Over 80% of families in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam own two-wheeled vehicles, however the dominant part are energized by gas. Nguyen disclosed to TechCrunch that numerous individuals need to change to electric motorbikes, yet a significant obstruction is performance.
Nguyen said that Dat Bike offers multiple times the presentation (5 kW versus 1.5 kW) and multiple times the reach (100 km versus 50 km) of most electric motorbikes on the lookout, at a similar value point. The organization’s leader motorbike, called Weaver, was made to contend with gas motorbikes. It seats two individuals, which Nguyen noted is a significant selling point in Southeast Asian nations, and has a 5000W engine that speeds up from 0 to 50 km each hour in three seconds. The Weaver can be completely energized at a standard plug in around three hours, and reach up to 100 km on one charge (the motorbike’s next emphasis will go up to 200 km on one charge).
Dat Bike’s opened its first actual store in Ho Chi Minh City last December. Nguyen said the organization “has transported a couple hundred motorbikes up until now and still have an accumulation of orders.” He added that it saw a 35% month-over-month development in new orders after the Ho Chi Minh City store opened.
At 39.9 million dong, or about $1,700 USD, Weaver’s valuing is additionally equivalent to the middle cost of gas motorbikes. Dat Bike accomplices with banks and monetary organizations to offer customers year installment plans with no interest.
“These folks are rivaling each other to put the arising working class of Vietnam on the advanced monetary market unexpectedly and therefore, we get an entirely ideal rate,” he said.
While Vietnam’s administration hasn’t carried out appropriations for electric motorbikes yet, the Ministry of Transportation has proposed new guidelines ordering electric foundation at parking garages and bicycle stations, which Nguyen said will expand the selection of electric vehicles. Other Vietnamese organizations making electric two-wheeled vehicles incorporate VinFast and PEGA.
One of Dat Bike’s benefits is that its bicycles are created in house, with privately sourced parts. Nguyen said the benefits of assembling in Vietnam, rather than sourcing from China and different nations, incorporate smoothed out coordinations and a more effective inventory network, since a large portion of Dat Bike’s providers are likewise domestic.
“There are additionally tremendous assessment benefits for being neighborhood, as import charge for bicycles is 45% and for bicycle parts going from 15% to 30%,” said Nguyen. “Exchange inside Southeast Asia is without tax however, which implies that we have an upper hand to grow to the locale, contrast with unfamiliar imported bikes.”
Dat Bike intends to extend by building its store network in Southeast Asia throughout the following a few years, with the assistance of financial backers like Jungle Ventures.
In an assertion, Jungle Ventures establishing accomplice Amit Anand said, “The $25 billion bike industry in Southeast Asia specifically is ready for receiving rewards of new improvements in electric vehicles and mechanization. We accept that Dat Bike will lead this charge and make another benchmark in the district as well as possibly universally for what the up and coming age of bike electric vehicles will look and perform like.”
