Sequoia-backed Upway refurbishes and resells e-bikes. It just raised $30 million with this 17-slide pitch deck.

• Upway, which refurbishes and resells secondhand e-bikes, just raised $30 million.
• The startup, founded by former Uber execs, secured the capital from Bolt-backer Korelya Capital.
• Check out the 17-slide pitch deck it used to raise the funds below.

Upway, a French startup that refurbishes and resells used e-bikes, has announced a $30 million Series B funding round.

The Paris-based startup, founded in 2021 by former Uber executives Stéphane Ficaja and Toussaint Wattinne, buys used e-bikes, refurbishes them as needed, and resells them at a discount.

It provides quotes and pickups to sellers in an average of 72 hours, though this may take longer in remote areas, and a new one-year warranty to buyers.

“The goal is not to remove all cars from cities in the entire world to e-bikes, at the end of the day, even if we switch 10, 20, 30% of car journeys to e-bikes, it will be a tremendous success,” Wattinne, the company’s founder and CEO, told Business Insider

E-bikes get people out of their cars, get them moving, and help to reduce noise and traffic pollution, according to Wattinne. The majority of an e-bike’s environmental footprint comes from its manufacturing and transportation phases, so Upway effectively reduces carbon emissions per kilometer traveled by refurbishing and extending their lifespan, according to Wattinne.

During the pandemic, e-bikes saw a surge in popularity. According to the European trade organization CONEBI, electric bike sales will reach 5 million in 2021, out of a total of 22 million bike sales. There are also plenty of them on the market, with VC-backed e-bike companies raking in $503 million at the sector’s peak in 2022, according to PitchBook.

According to Wattinne, micro-mobility rentals such as Lime and Tier have helped popularize the market and accelerate the adoption of e-bikes in cities. In the countryside, however, once people realize they can do their groceries or have fun on the weekend regardless of hills or distance, interest in e-bikes is just as strong, according to him. The difference in interest between cities and the countryside is “marginal,” he adds.

The company, which has operations in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, plans to use the new funds to open new warehouses in Belgium and Los Angeles next year. In its two years of operation, it has refurbished 20,000 e-bikes, but it will have a capacity of around 200,000 by the end of next year. It plans to refurbish a million bikes per year over the next five to ten years.

The round was led by French fund Korelya Capital, which has previously backed Vestiaire Collective, Bolt, and Grover, with participation from existing investors Sequoia and Exor Ventures. Transition, a climate tech fund founded by Unity founder David Helgason and his brother Ari, also presented the firm with a check.

It brings the total amount raised by the company to $60 million. Upway intends to grow its global workforce, which currently numbers around 70 people. It will expand its tech and product teams in Paris, Berlin, Belgium, and Los Angeles.