Electric motorcycle manufacturer, Cake has closed a $60 million Series it hopes would be used to set up manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and Asia, while scaling its retail onions.
The Founder and CEO of Cake, Stefan Ytterborn, while making the announcement in a statement said:
“We are in the process of implementing initiatives to scale the business, structuring and laying the base for rapid growth”.
According to Ytterborn, the recent launch of an electric moped for city riding called the Makka by Cake has helped to expand the company’s userbase within B2C and B2B, a demonstration of the directional-shift of Cake’s products platforms, with the the Kalk and the Ösa, its first two vehicles made for heavier duty, off-road riding and utility.
According to the company, the new manufacturing facilities across Europe, North America and Asia will propel the sustainability and efficiency of the Swedish E-motorcycle manufacturer as it plans to ship its vehicles directly to its teeming users worldwide. The bikes were until recently assembled in Taiwan and shipped to US, Canada and Europe warehouses, with each shipping container from Taiwan fitting 25 bikes.
A spokesman of the company told TechCrunch that it can now ship as more components as it can from Taiwan to its facilities in Europe and North America to make 150 bikes per container, in the process reducing the shipping volume by a whopping 80%.
The facility in Europe has been in operation since July, with the company aiming to start operations in the North American assembly by the first half of 2022.
“Efficiency wise we will be able to assemble an order with two weeks delivery time instead of ordering eight months beforehand, reflecting what anticipated demand will be: high inventory risk and cash flow heavy,” said the spokesperson.
According to Ytterborn, the fresh funding provides Cake the opportunity to set up a retail presence, have showrooms spring up in major cities beginning this fall.
“We knew we were entering a space with increasingly strong tailwinds when we got started back in 2016, but we couldn’t dream of the pace in which things are now happening, for the good of people, planet and business,” he continued.
According to Cake, the $60 million round is split analysed into convertible notes of $14 million and a $46 million financing round, with the latter led by Swedish pension fund AMF.
Existing shareholders like Creandum and Headline both who were involved in the 2019 Cake’s $14 million Series A participated in the round with a handful of new investors also joining this latest round.
“Cake’s obsession with creating a superior user experience has been ingrained in the company’s DNA from day one and is something we can fully identify with,” said Staffan Helgesson, general partner at Creandum Advisor, in a statement. “We are very happy to continue to support the team for the long term in their ambition to become the category leader in the premium two wheeler electric vehicle segment.”
