New Delhi:- According to a recent report, Indonesia's electric vehicle (EV) market is expected to reach $20 billion by 2029, up from $533 million in 2022. Furthermore, by 2030, up to half of the total two-wheeler market in Southeast Asia could be replaced by electric two-wheelers, McKinsey partner Rahul Gupta said at last year's G20 summit.

Indonesian electric vehicle manufacturer Makah Motors announced today that it has raised a US$37.6 million seed round, Southeast Asia's largest seed funding, to bring its electric two-wheeler to mass production. The goal is he is in production by the end of 2024. Maka will start testing its first electric vehicle this month.

The seed capital will also allow Maka to continue its in-house electric vehicle development, which it started last year, as well as research and development for the construction of its West Java plant, which is scheduled to start in the second half of 2023. 

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Korean SV Investments AV Ventures and East Ventures jointly led the latest capital offering. Other investors in this round include Northstar Group, Provident, Alfa Crop, Skystar Capital, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India and SEA), Openspace Ventures, Shinhan Venture Investment, Beenext, Kinesys and M Venture Partners (MVP).

Raditya Wibowo, CEO of Maka Motors, and his CTO, Arief Fadillah, who previously worked for Gojek, founded Maka in 2021 to promote the popularity of electric motorcycles in Indonesia.

“Like many Indonesians, our founders were motorcyclists from a young age and have worked extensively with Gojek drivers since 2015,” Wibowo said in an email interview with TechCrunch. “Indonesia is the world’s third largest market for electric two-wheelers (vehicles), but EV penetration is still relatively low.”

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According to the company, incumbents in Indonesia have only 43,000 registered electric motorcycles, falling short of the country's goal of producing 600,000 electric vehicles by 2030. There are over 127 million motorcycles in Indonesia, most of which are petrol powered. 

"Most of the current two-wheel electric vehicles are imported from China as complete knockdown (CKD) kits and are tailored to meet the needs of Chinese users," he said. “Though these Chinese-developed 2W vehicles are relatively affordable, they have yet to replace the petrol bikes used by most Indonesian users today.”

A 2W car must have enough power to overtake a car in Indonesia because drivers share the same lane as cars, the average mileage is higher (than in China) and it is common to carry adults unlike in China. Another issue is cost, Wibowo said. Most of his 2W EV offerings with bigger batteries and more motor power are more expensive than gas bikes.

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Maka's mission is to build the best electric motorcycles that allow Indonesian users to save money on gas. The two-year-old startup aims to offer Indonesian riders a blend of range, performance, ease of use and durability at a competitive price compared to current bikes. 

Ride-hailing company Gojek plans to convert all its fleet to electric vehicles by 2030, and Grab Indonesia has set a goal of operating at least 85,000 electric vehicles in Indonesia this year. Michael Soelijaj, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures, said, "Indonesia's two-wheel electric vehicle penetration rate is currently only 0.2% of the market (compared to internal combustion engine two-wheelers), but public and private stakeholders If we can work together to build a regional electric sector, it could exceed 10% in the next five years."

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“We believe Maka Motors will play a key role in one of the world's largest motorcycle markets. We stand behind the team's deep knowledge of the local market, gained through extensive research and industry experience. increase."

The company employs a team of about 40 people. Many of the team members have previously worked for gasoline motorcycle manufacturers in Indonesia and global car companies in Japan and Germany. 

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Maka Motors an Indonesian EC manufacturing company has made a seed round and had raised an amount of $37.6 Million which is noted as the SouthEast Asia’a biggest funding till now and has aimed to start manufacturing its first Two-Wheeler EV’s soon by 2024 but by this month they will start to pilot their first electric vehicle.