Stockholm-based STILRIDE has come up with a pioneering approach to produce sustainable electric motorcycles and scooters – it’s a process dubbed ‘industrial origami’ and the team has just raised €2.9 million to continue developing the tech.
The seed round was joined by angels and private investors that include Gustaf Hagman, Saeid Esmaeilizadeh, Sam Bonnier and Andreas Adler.
STILRIDE’s pioneering industrial origami technology, called STILFOLD, is the brainchild of best friends Tue Beijer and Jonas Nyvang, whose backgrounds span the worlds of fashion, industrial design and engineering. The duo came up with the idea at dinner back in 2019, before launching the startup in 2020.
Jonas Nyvang, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of STILRIDE, said: “The STILFOLD technology is best described as a dance between robots and steel. We have created a process which builds high-performance, sustainable personal mobility products that are also durable, lightweight and desirable.”
With STILRIDE, the duo aim to reimagine how high-performance electric-mobility products are manufactured and distributed using cutting-edge steelwork, advanced robotics and ambitious design. The trailblazing manufacturing technique involves robots that are able to fold single sheets of recyclable steel into intricate, lightweight and durable new structures – significantly reducing the environmental impact of production.
This process is being used to create the chassis and body for a fleet of next-generation e-motorcycles which will be made available to consumers in Europe later this year.
The injection of funding will be used to bring the startup’s first product to the mass market: the futuristic Sport Utility Scooter One (SUS1). The SUS1 is constructed by folding sheets of stainless steel over curves, much like origami. Not only does this result in a durable body and distinctive aesthetic, but it also requires fewer raw materials and reduces labour costs. Compared to a traditional scooter, the SUS1 requires 70% fewer components, driving a 25% reduction in labour costs and a 20% reduction in material costs.
To reduce the product’s carbon footprint, the company is aiming to create a production process which allows the steel sheets to be flat-packed and shipped to local factories across Europe where they’ll be folded and fitted with a hub motor and battery pack.
There are already 90,000 people on the waiting list for the STILRIDE SUS1 e-scooter, with the first pre-series set to be released to customers in the autumn of 2022.
