Current Motor Co's business plan has focused on expanding its sales of electric scooters into South America, where the vehicles are popular. That plan is starting to gain traction this summer with the beginning of the company's first fleet sales.
The Ann Arbor-based start-up manufactures an electric scooter that provides the same sort of mobility and capability as regular gas-powered scooters, but with a much smaller carbon footprint. Many of the two-stroke gas engines of the millions of scooters in South American countries like Brazil produce a lot of air pollution. That isn't an issue with Current Motor Co's electric scooters and solar-power charging stations.
"It's actually a very practical fleet addition," says Lauren Flanagan, executive chair & interim CEO of
Current Motor Co. "It's very popular, particularly with mobile, solar-powered charging stations."
Flanagan says the company is in the midst of completing its first fleet sales in Brazil this spring and expects to complete more by the end of the year. It is also looking at making similar fleet sales in the U.S. as it attempts to hit the break-even point of selling 500 scooters within the next year.
"We have a very lean model so we think that is possible," Flanagan says.
Current Motor Co and its team of a dozen people closed on a Series A round of financing worth $2.4 million last year. Flanagan expects to begin fundraising for a Series B round worth somewhere between $5 million and $10 million early next year. The company is currently looking to hire a director of fleet sales and a couple of software engineers to develop mobile apps for its scooters.
Source: Lauren Flanagan, executive chair & interim CEO of Current Motor Co
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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