Jungle Ventures leads $5.3m round of Vietnamese EV firm

Dat Bike, a Vietnam-based electric motorbike startup, has raised US$5.3 million in its series A funding round led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from existing investor Wavemaker Partners.

Dat Bike founder Son Nguyen / Photo credit: Dat Bike

The startup will use the fresh funds to invest in its tech, scale production, ramp-up hiring, and expand to metro and Tier 1 cities across North, Central, and South Vietnam. The company has raised a total of US$10 million to date.

Founded in 2019, Dat Bike aims to drive the mass adoption of green transportation in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Dat Bike’s first product – Weaver – offers three times the performance (5 kW versus 1.5 kW) and two times the range (100 km versus 50 km) of most electric motorbikes at the same price point. The Vietnam Ministry of Transportation recognizes Weaver as the first domestically made electric bike.

The company was founded by Son Nguyen, who is a former senior software engineer at US-based Addepar, a wealth management platform for registered investment advisors specializing in data aggregation, analytics, and portfolio reporting.

“Despite Southeast Asia being one of the largest motorbike markets in the world, the adoption of electric vehicles has been slow since traditionally, they are seen as an inferior option to gasoline bikes and being weak and low-ranged, delivering only half the performance of a typical gas bike,” Dat Bike said in a statement.

See also: These are the most active investors in Vietnam’s startups

Meanwhile, Jungle Ventures has invested in several Vietnamese startups such as KiotViet, a merchant platform for MSMEs; Mio, a social commerce platform for grocery and fresh produce; Medici, a healthcare and insurtech platform; and Timo, a digital bank.