Overview
With 260+ pre-orders, Savic Motorcycles sought funding to help execute its first production run in late 2023. The company has raised $4m to date from several investors, but looked to leverage its large community of believers through a CSF raise to accelerate its path to commercialisation. The campaign saw over 1,500 individuals express interest, leading to over $1.2M raised from 467 investors.
Who is Savic Motorcycles?
Savic Motorcycles are an Australian electric vehicle (EV) company, offering premium, high-performance electric motorcycles. Bikes are designed, engineered and built, in-house in Melbourne by their experienced team of auto industry veterans. With multiple design awards, media coverage and industry insider reviews behind them, Savic Motorcycles is carving out its position as a leader in Australia’s nascent EV sector.
Why we liked Savic Motorcycles
In-House Development
Savic Motorcycles has sought to differentiate itself with innovative technologies developed in-house by its Australian design, engineering and software teams. The software and technologies created by the Savic Motorcycles team are like no other which not just ensures an exceptional riding experience for customers but delivers a strategic competitive advantage over the company’s competitors.
Significant Market Opportunity
Savic Motorcycles’ mission is to provide competitively-priced, high-performance bikes that will put Australia on the global EV and motorcycle map. The global motorcycle industry is massive and growing each year. In Australia alone, the market is worth over $1.1 billion, with a serviceable obtainable market estimated at over $60 million.
Market Validation
The company had secured over $6m in projected revenue from its pre-orders alone. The company had validated not only that there is demand from consumers, but that they could produce exceptional bikes via their prototype productions that impressed industry experts.
Multi-Award-Winning Design
The company has secured a number of awards in its short history, including two Australian Good Design awards and last year’s coveted Victorian Premier’s Design Award. With smart design being one of the most significant factors driving sales in the e-motorcycle market the team at Savic Motorcycles know that design and recognition will continue to be a key focus along with product development.
Key Takeaways
Focused and Committed team
The Savic Motorcycles team was extremely committed to the process and everyone had a role to play. The raises that are most successful are when the entire company and team get behind it, both internally and externally. In this way it can be quite different from a traditional founder-led raise, but is extremely powerful in galvanizing staff and building transparency and accountability. We then see this flow over into a well-run process, with clear roles and responsibilities which positively impacts the outcome.
Complementary Source of Funding
We are seeing an increasing trend towards venture-backed businesses leveraging CSF raises as an additional source of capital. This follows a trend in other markets such as the UK. Savic Motorcycles are another example of this having previously raised $1m+ from established VCs, with ongoing conversations with other similar investors ahead of their planned Series A later this year.