Pollen raises €3.2 million for electric motorcycle battery swapping

Lisbon-based Pollen has raised €3.2 million in seed funding to expand a battery-swapping network for electric mopeds and motorcycles across Europe. The company is betting that shared, standardized batteries can address two barriers holding back electric two-wheelers: high upfront vehicle costs and slow charging.

The round was led by Pale Blue Dot and Mustard Seed Maze, with participation from Kfund, Bynd Venture Capital, 4P Capital, Masia and mobility-focused angel investors. Pollen did not disclose its valuation, revenue or headcount.

A gap in two-wheeler electrification

Electric adoption in European passenger cars is far ahead of motorcycles. More than 60% of new passenger cars sold in the EU were electrified, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-electric models, while fewer than 6% of new motorcycles sold last year were electric, according to figures cited by Pollen.

Rui Bento, Pollen’s co-founder and CEO, argues the economics are different for motorcycles than for cars. Batteries represent a larger share of the cost of a two-wheeler, while the owner gets less benefit from removing complex mechanical parts. Charging is the second problem: riders who depend on motorcycles for work cannot lose five to eight hours to recharge during the day, Bento said.

Bento previously worked in urban mobility and logistics, including launching Uber in Portugal in 2014 and later leading its Portugal and Spain operations. In 2019, he co-founded Kitch, a foodtech startup that was later acquired by Delivery Hero. He co-founded Pollen with CTO Miguel Morgado after focusing on why motorcycles had lagged other urban vehicle categories in electrification.

A universal battery claim

Pollen’s product is a battery-swapping system designed to work across electric mopeds and motorcycles from different manufacturers. Existing swap networks from companies and OEMs such as Gogoro, Honda and KYMCO Ionex usually require vehicles to be built around a specific battery format, which limits adoption outside markets where those ecosystems already have scale.

Pollen says its Electronic Cell Switching technology allows one battery to power different makes and models without a performance penalty. The company also says it has built a communications layer for multiple bike protocols and a form factor intended to fit most existing two-wheelers. If it works as described, that would reduce the amount of vehicle redesign required by manufacturers, although Pollen has not disclosed named OEM customers.

The company has started in Lisbon with three automated swapping stations at Galp service stations in Amoreiras, Alvalade and Lumiar. Pollen says the stations operate 24 hours a day and complete swaps in seconds. It plans to add more locations in the coming months and is targeting roughly 30 to 40 stations in the city by the end of the year.

Diagnostics, data and second-life use

Each Pollen station also acts as a battery inspection point. When a battery is returned, the station checks data from the battery management system, including cell balance, temperature and pressure. Pollen says batteries that fall outside operating thresholds are removed from circulation for maintenance rather than issued to another rider.

The company expects many early users to be couriers and delivery riders, and it designs its batteries for about 1,200 charge cycles. Bento said the calendar life will depend on utilization, since heavily used networks will reach that cycle count faster than lightly used ones.

Pollen also expects station data to shape future battery design. Bento cited Lisbon’s hills as an example: repeated acceleration and high-current discharge can stress cells differently than use in flatter cities. The company is considering whether future batteries should vary by operating environment.

Once batteries fall to about 70% of original capacity, Pollen says they may still be useful for stationary storage. Bento said municipal organizations had already approached the company about backup-power applications, including traffic lights and other critical infrastructure. That idea remains exploratory.

The new capital will go toward more stations, hiring and commercial deployment in additional European markets. Bento said Pollen is prioritizing dense city networks over entering many cities at once, since riders need frequent access to stations for swapping to compete with petrol refueling.

This story draws on original reporting from Tech.eu.