Electric bike maker Modmo has received a €5m investment from Irish property developer Sean Mulryan, to expand its business and deliver to new countries. The start-up has closed its latest funding round after securing a total of €8.7m in the last year.

Modmo founder Jack O’Sullivan said the latest funding will “accelerate our goal of getting an ebike in every household in Europe”. The company plans to expand into new markets such as North America this year, with the opening of its first dealership in Canada set for March.

The investment will also expand Modmo’s headcount. It has 35 engineers based in Vietnam and expects the headcount to exceed 100 this year. Last August, O’Sullivan set up a new Dublin-based team focused on sales, marketing and support. This team currently has 10 people with plans to expand to 30 this year.

The electric bike company currently delivers to eight countries with Germany making up 85pc of its sales. Modmo claims to have a  vast network in Germany that can offer servicing anywhere in the country within 48 hours.

“Germany will still be our key market this year,” O’Sullivan told The Irish Times. “It is pretty much the centre of the universe for e-bikes sales and I expect it will represent about 60 to 70pc of sales in 2022.”

The Vietnam-headquartered company told The Irish Times that its partnership with Mulryan could lead to Modmo bikes being used at various development sites. Mulryan’s company, the Ballymore Group, has around 80,000 bike parking spaces planned across its Irish and UK developments. Some of these could be reserved for Modmo’s “Saigon” ebikes.

“The future cities will have transport sectors powered predominately by electrification,” Mulryan said. “Electric bikes are already playing a role and are fast becoming one of the most popular modes of urban transport throughout Europe.”

Previously a start-up of the week, Modmo was founded in 2019 when O’Sullivan moved to Vietnam to make “the best bike in the world”. The bike designs have a battery that lasts up to 100km built into the frame tubes, making it invisible from the outside.

“Elon Musk believes that we need to move roads underground, but I think we need to shift towards personal modes of transport. If everyone was using our e-bikes for urban transport and companies began using our cargo bikes for transport and delivery, there would be a drastic reduction in congestion and vehicle-emitted pollution,” O’Sullivan said.

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