Conifer, an innovative electric motor company, has successfully secured a $20 million seed funding round from deep tech investors, including True Ventures, MaC Ventures, and MFV Partners. The company’s mission is to be a leader in the global small mobility market. That’s largely due to its revolutionary “drop-in” hub motor design that simplifies replacement for customers, increases efficiency, and reduces costs.
Founded by Ankit Somani and his team, Conifer developed a unique motor design that is one to two orders of magnitude less complex than conventional automotive motors. This more novel approach allows for substantial simplification of manufacturing complexities. The result is that, once again, Conifer gets to claim superiority to the electric motor market. Somani called attention to his experience of a lack of investment and innovation in this space. It was here that he saw a tremendous opportunity for Conifer to make its greatest impact.
Unlike other hub motors, Conifer’s contains no rare earth elements, which makes it unique. Beyond aesthetics, this design choice meets practical needs by streamlining supply chains and decreasing production costs. The company has strategically chosen to use more common ferrite magnets, thereby mitigating supply chain risks that often plague electric vehicle manufacturers. This ruling reaffirms Conifer’s intent to localize its supply chain around its manufacturing hubs. It will help establish a uniquely American, more resilient, production model.
Their manufacturing approach is based on the idea of super-automated, scaled-down, decentralized “microfactories.” This concept has received wide acclaim by other forward-thinking companies in the industry, including Arrival. By utilizing microfactories, Conifer hopes to control the production process and improve efficiencies while consistently delivering quality products.
Conifer’s integrated hub motor takes the headache out of converting and upgrading your vehicle. It’s intended as a “drop-in” replacement for current hub motors, so you don’t have to re-tool all your current vehicle designs. Somani describes it this way, “Imagine you used to have a wheel with a hub motor. Now, thanks to a mostly-drop-in replacement for a new wheel, you’ll gain an astonishing 10% improvement in range. That’s it. And then all the cost and all the other discussions follow after that.” Manufacturers are attracted to this modularity and resulting ease of integration. This lets them continuously improve the performance of their electric vehicles with less customer disruption.
Combined with the company’s focus on the smaller end of the mobility space, it is intended to deliver solutions for both personal transportation and last-mile delivery use cases. As a result of this world-leading technology, Conifer has gained the interest of several international clients. Consequently, the company finds itself bracing for scale and expects to ship production motors this fall. The company’s unique hub motor provides more efficiency and more powerful hub motors than comparable hub motors. On top of that, it’s half the cost, which is why it’s so appealing to manufacturers seeking to expand their electric mobility portfolios.
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