Upway

According to the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry, more than 22 million e-bikes have been sold across Europe over the past decade, with millions more circulating across the United States and other global urban markets where Upway is now active.

Manufacturing a new e-bike carries meaningful embedded carbon, concentrated in the battery, motor, frame and freight, and the footprint of a single new bike represents several hundred kilograms of CO2 before it has ever been ridden. Many of these bikes then sit idle within a year or two of ownership, traded down through informal channels or piling up in retailer stockrooms after seasonal over-ordering.

The European market entered a structural adjustment after the post-Covid bubble. Manufacturers restructured, smaller refurbishers failed, and EU anti-dumping duties on Chinese e-bikes were extended for five more years. The same dynamic is now playing out across the US and other mature cycling markets.

Regrettably, the refurbishment infrastructure required to address this, with industrial sourcing, quality control and consumer-grade resale, has historically been fragmented and artisanal, incapable of scaling beyond local pilots.

As a result, the price of a new e-bike, often above 2,500 euros, keeps the category out of reach for most households. Refurbishing captures that embedded carbon, extends product life, and delivers a bike at an average 45% discount to retail. One operation, two outcomes: lower carbon, broader access.

We have watched the urban mobility space for years, looking for the company that could turn cycling from a niche commute option into a mainstream alternative to the car. E-bikes are the answer for distance, terrain and accessibility, yet the price of a new one, often above 2,500 euros, keeps the category out of reach for most households. Refurbished was the obvious answer on paper, but no one had managed to industrialize it.

We feel fortunate that two exceptional operators took this on. We met Toussaint Wattinne and Stéphane Ficaja early, shortly after they left Uber, and their operating muscle was immediately clear. They had spent years building dense logistics networks across Europe, and chose e-bike refurbishment precisely because everyone else had failed at it.

Refurbishment is a circular promise that usually breaks on operations, fragmented sourcing, quality control at scale, buyer trust when every bike has a different history. Upway built the entire stack in-house instead. Bikes are reconditioned at industrial UpCenters, inspected on 50 points, sold through a marketplace covering 200+ brands and 2,500 models at an average 45% discount, and delivered home with a one-year warranty. Vertical integration is the moat.

In November 2025, Upway closed a $60M Series C led by A.P. Møller, with Sequoia, Exor, Korelya and others reinvesting, taking total funding above $125M. The company now operates in nine countries across Europe and the US, with six UpCenters and a target of one million refurbished e-bikes annually. Sales doubled in 2025, and US sales are on track to double again in 2026.