If you're Indian EV motorbike manufacturer Ultraviolette, it's undoubtedly an exciting time.
To say that the firm appears to have hit the ground running seems like a pretty big understatement. Particularly in a segment—EV motorbikes—where there've been a number of startups that have crowdfunded pie-in-the-sky creations, then fizzled out (and presumably took everyone's cash with them).
Ultraviolette has come a long way since first unveiling the F77's design back in 2019. It was only a few years later that the company would set its sights on markets outside of India, making its first international appearance—where else?—at EICMA. My partner got the chance to see it in person in Italy that year, and was impressed with how solidly put together it seemed to be.
So far, the firm has been building actual motorcycles in addition to all the hype, and getting them out the door to customers in India before inking its first international distribution deals in Europe. But true to the form it's shown so far, it's also thinking several steps ahead. That's why it's now raised an additional $21M in funding from Japan's TDK Ventures, a subsidiary of the TDK electronics giant that most of us are probably familiar with.
From TDK's point of view, now seems like a potentially quite lucrative time to get in on the Ultraviolette goodness. This might be burying the lede here slightly, but the firm says that it's apparently received over 70,000 preorders for its potentially groundbreaking Tesseract and Shockwave.
To be clear, it's always good to have a healthy amount of skepticism when companies announce things, because companies can (and often do) say what they want to paint themselves in the best light. But if that number is anywhere close to accurate, it's certainly the kind of number that any OEM, big or small, would very much like to have.
Beyond just the simple fact of preorder cash flowing in, a number like that confirms that whatever you've created is on the right track with what customers want. Finding that many people who are willing to back up their "I want that!" with cold, hard cash is no small feat, in any industry. The funding from TDK will help Ultraviolette continue to innovate and grow, both in the markets it's already entered as well as new ones down the line.
Have you ridden one of Ultraviolette's F77s, and/or are you currently waiting excitedly for your Tesseract or Shockwave? Or are you in a market that Ultraviolette doesn't serve just yet, but hoping it comes your way sometime in the near future? Let us know in the comments.
