Sweden’s STILRIDE is anything but still, rides ahead with €3.7 million

Swedish makers of one rather stylish electric motorcycle, STILRIDE have raised €3.7 million in a new funding round. With over 135,000 individuals already on the waiting list for the Sport Utility Scooter One (SUS1), a figure up 45,000 since January, the electromobility and industrial tech startup will use the capital to press forward with growth and innovation as well as continue to invest in its sustainable manufacturing technology, a term it refers to as “industrial origami”, in a multitude of ways. 

Founded in March of 2020 by Tue Beijer (who has worked under the tutelage of legendary industry figure Giotto Bizzarrini, creator of the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Lamborghini V12 engine) and Jonas Nyvang, whose backgrounds span the worlds of fashion, industrial design, and engineering, STILRIDE is fusing the best of old world style with next world design principles and techniques that use robotic arms to fold steel over curves, resulting in light, strong and durable forms.

While STILRIDE is coming out of the gate with an e-motorcycle, slated to go on sale to the mass market next year, the company clearly has aspirations that extend beyond “just” two wheels. And planet earth.

Recently announced, the startup has struck partnership deals with Swedish space innovation startup I.S.A.A.C that will see exploration into applications for their technology in outer space, and named one of the partners in a project being developed by electric car company Polestar, aimed at making the world’s first truly climate-neutral car. 

As a reminder, the world’s 5th largest producer of motorcars, Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, better known in the West as the Honda Motor Co., Ltd. began life by making auxiliary engines for bicycles, then on to motorcycles, then on to automobiles. This is not to say that Beijer and Nyvang are Honda and Fujisawa, but only that parallels in the lineage are beginning to form. At least in some regards.

STILRIDE’s most recent funding round was provided by new and existing investors including LeoVegas CEO and founder Gustaf Hagman, serial entrepreneur Saeid Esmaeilzadeh, and Polar Structure CEO and founder Tobias Emanuelsson. The startup is also enabling individual enthusiasts to join the round with smaller investments, through a Crowdcube community fundraise, slated to conclude on the 15th of November.

“We’ve been blown away by the interest in both our technology and our first e-mobility launch. We truly believe we have the power to change the future of sustainable design and manufacturing, and this new investment will enable us to push the boundaries of our technology even further, even sooner than we’d hoped,” commented Nyvang.