Gogoro Inc, a Taiwanese-based venture-backed company that develops and sells electric scooters and battery swapping infrastructure, has raised another US$300 million (NT$9 billion) as it looks to further expand to new regions and product categories.
The third round of capital increase was joined by Temasek Holdings Private Limited, a holding company as a national wealth fund owned by the Government of Singapore; Generation Investment Management LLP (GIM), a London-based investment management firm ,founded by Al Gore, the former Vise-President of the U.S, with a focus on social and environmental responsibility and corporate governance; Engie, a French multinational electric utility company; and Sumitomo Corporation, one of the largest worldwide general trading companies located in Japan.
So far, the firm's total funding has exceeded US$480 million (NT$14.4 billion). It is reported that Gogoro will use the raised capital to expand its overseas market and R&D scale.
Since its first launch in 2015, Gogoro, with an over 90% e-bike market share in Taiwan, has sold over 34,000 electric bikes and has established more than 400 GoStations, Gororo's battery swap stations, in Taiwan.
Gogoro stressed that, with proper financial support and innovative ideas, the brand from Taiwan is definitely capable of becoming a global industrial leader. Once the fund is in position, Gogoro will tap its market in Berlin and Paris before venturing into other cities.
On another front, Gogoro sees Southeast Asia and India as the firm's next major targets since both markets' needs for motorcycle is vigorous. Countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, contribute US$55 billion (NT$1.65 trillion) to global motorcycle market annually; among them, India's motorbike market scale is 23 times as much as it is in Taiwan; while the market scales of other five countries total 17 times as much as that of Taiwan. The great potential of electric bike in these countries is the major reason that Temasek Holdings Private Limited decided to cooperate with Gogoro.
Samuel Yin, Chairman of Taiwan-based multinational corp. Ruentex Group and one of the shareholders of Gogoro, said that he is glad to see Gogoro's vision is shared by new global investors and sincerely hope that they can together change the world through undertaking technology innovation, urban traffic improvement and resources integration. “We are now putting the vision into practice and have seen the payoff in Taiwan, Berlin and Paris.” Yin said.
Horace Luke, the founder of Gogoro, noted that winning funds from global leading companies like Temasek and GIM is the best proof that Gogoro's innovative concept like smart sustainable energy technology and battery swap system can definitely work out and soon become widely applicable to markets and vehicles.
