Ex-Uber Portugal exec grabs €3.2M co-led by Pale Blue Dot to build battery-swap network for mopeds and motorcycles — TFN

Pollen, a Portuguese startup creating a common battery-swapping community for mopeds and bikes, has raised €3.2 million in a funding spherical led by Pale Blue Dot and Mustard Seed Maze.

Different traders within the spherical embrace Kfund, Bynd, 4P Capital, Masia, and several other angel traders, comparable to George Kalligeros, vp of {hardware} at Tier, Gui Telles, former chief working officer of Uber/Bounce, and Bastian Cransac, vp for Europe and the Americas at Lime.

Pollen, based in 2024 by Rui Bento and Miguel Morgado, is making a community of automated battery-swapping stations and a common battery pack that works with autos from totally different producers.

Bento beforehand launched and led Uber in Portugal and Spain, in addition to Uber Eats in Southern Europe, earlier than founding Kitch, a cloud kitchen startup that Glovo acquired in 2022. Morgado based Hunter Boards.

Greater than 97% of mopeds and bikes in Europe nonetheless run on petrol, making two-wheelers probably the most depending on fossil fuels amongst highway autos. There are over 55 million internal-combustion-engine two-wheelers on the continent. Electrification has been sluggish, primarily because of excessive upfront prices, restricted vary, and lengthy charging occasions, reasonably than an absence of demand.

“Electrifying mopeds and bikes in Europe takes greater than replicating the mannequin used for automobiles. It wants an answer that’s extra inexpensive and extra sensible than petrol. That’s what Pollen presents,” says Bento.

Pollen makes use of a common battery with digital cell-switching know-how, permitting a single battery pack to securely energy autos from totally different producers with out sacrificing efficiency. Riders can swap a used battery for a totally charged one at a Pollen station in lower than a minute, eradicating the necessity for queues, charging cables, and considerations about working out of energy. The automated stations are open 24/7.

Most present swap networks, comparable to Taiwan’s Gogoro and Honda’s Cellular Energy Pack system, are closed programs the place batteries and autos are designed collectively. Pollen goals to make battery swapping potential throughout Europe by providing a single battery pack suitable with any make or mannequin.

Pollen’s first three stations at the moment are working at Galp service stations within the Amoreiras, Alvalade, and Lumiar neighbourhoods of Lisbon. The corporate goals to construct a subscription-based community that would assist 100 million fossil-fuel-free rides and deliveries worldwide daily.