Upway, a French startup that refurbishes and resells secondhand e-bikes, has just raised $30 million in Series B funding.
The Paris-based company, founded in 2021 by former Uber executives Stéphane Ficaja and Toussaint Wattinne, buys up used e-bikes, refurbishes them where necessary, and sells them on for a discounted price.
It offers quotes and pickups within an average of 72 hours to sellers, though maybe longer in remote areas, and a fresh one-year warranty to buyers.
“The goal is not to remove all cars from cities in the entire world to e-bikes, at the end of the day, even if we switch 10, 20, 30% of car journeys to e-bikes, it will be a tremendous success,” CEO Wattinne told Business Insider.
E-bikes get people out of their cars, being active, and reduce noise and traffic pollution, Wattinne said. Most of an e-bike’s environmental footprint comes from its manufacturing and transportation phases, so by refurbishing them and extending their lifespan, Upway effectively reduces the carbon emissions per kilometer traveled, Wattinne added.
E-bikes boomed in the pandemic. Electric bikes sales hit 5 million in 2021, out of 22 million overall bike sales, according to European trade organization CONEBI. There is also no shortage of them on the street, with VC-backed e-bike firms luring in $503 million at the sector’s 2022 peak, per PitchBook.
Micro-mobility rentals, such as Lime and Tier, helped popularise the market and accelerate the adoption of e-bikes in cities, Wattinne said. But in the countryside, once people realize they can do their groceries or have fun on the weekend regardless of hills and distance, interest in e-bikes is just as strong, he said. Per population, the difference in interest from cities versus the countryside is “marginal,” he added.
The company, which operates in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and the US, will use the fresh funds to open new warehouses in Belgium and LA next year. It has refurbished 20,000 e-bikes in its two years of operation but will have the capacity for around 200,000 by the end of next year. In the next five to 10 years, it wants to refurbish a million bikes per year.
French fund Korelya Capital, which has backed Vestiaire Collective, Bolt, and Grover, led the round with participation from existing investors Sequoia and Exor Ventures. Climate tech fund Transition, launched by Unity founder David Helgason and his brother Ari, also handed the firm a check.
It brings the company’s total raised to $60 million. Upway plans to expand its headcount, which is currently around 70 globally. It will hire across tech and product, growing its teams in Paris, Berlin, Belgium, and LA.
Check out the 17-slide redacted pitch deck it used to raise the funds:
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