MAKA Motors Broke Southeast Asian Seed Funding Record in Hardware Sector

Technology Author: Yuan Zhuang Jul 25, 2023 11:43 AM (GMT+8)

Indonesian electric motorcycle start-up MAKA Motors recently announced that it has completed a round of financing of USD 37.6 million, creating a seed round record for hardware startups in Southeast Asia.

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MAKA Motors was established in 2021. Co-founders Raditya Wibowo and Arief Fadillah are both executives of ride-hailing giant GoJek. MAKA Motors is aiming to enter the Indonesian market with its consumer-grade electric motorcycles.

Currently, MAKA Motors' first two-wheeled EV product for the mass market is under development and is expected to be launched next year, while MAKA Motors' first test vehicles are also expected to be deployed this month.

According to the data, due to the increasing demand for economic transportation vehicles, the Indonesian motorcycle market will reach USD 12.35 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.1% from 2023 to 2032. Indonesia has more than 127 million motorcycles, but only about 43,000 of them are electric motorcycles. Given that the number of newly sold motorcycles in Indonesia reaches 6 million to 8 million units every year, there is a huge opportunity space for electric motorcycles.

It has now been revealed that MAKA Motors will build a factory in West Java later this year. Michael Soerijadji, founder and managing partner of AC Ventures, one of the leading investors in this round of financing, said about this financing that, AC Ventures invested in MAKA Motors because of their innovative approach and efficient supply chain management. Their team has a very comprehensive understanding of the Indonesian market, and AC Ventures believe they can help drive the transformation of sustainable mobility. Part of their supply chain will definitely be sourced from China, while the other part will be sourced locally in Indonesia.

In addition to MAKA Motors, several companies are competing in the electric motorcycle market. The representative companies in China include Yadea (雅迪), AIMA (爱玛), TAILG (台铃), Luyuan (绿源), Niu Technologies (小牛) and Davinci Tech (达芬骑). Internationally, Harley-Davidson in the United States, Yamaha in Japan, BMW in Germany, Ducati in Italy, and Triumph in the UK are all quite powerful.

The round for MAKA Motors was led by AC Ventures, East Ventures, and SV Investment in South Korea, with participation from Northstar Group, Provident, AlfaCorp, Skystar Capital, Peak XV Partners, Openspace Ventures, Shinhan Venture Investment, BEENEXT, Kinesys Group, and M Venture Partners. This round of financing will be used to expand the scale of operations, enhance research and development capabilities and facility construction, and accelerate the production of its innovative electric motorcycles.