Swap Receives Series A Funding of IDR 341 Billion from Qiming, GGV, and Ondine Capital

Electric battery service developer Swap Energi received series A funding worth $22 million or the equivalent of 341,4 billion Rupiah. According to regulatory data as quoted from Alternatives.pe, there were three investors participating in this round, namely Qiming Venture Partners, GGV Capital, and Ondine Capital.

To DailySocial.id, Co-Founder & CEO of Swap Energi Irwan Tjahaja confirmed that the company had just closed its series A funding round. However, he did not mention the details.

Previously in April 2023, Swap announced A pre-series funding from Ondine Capital with the support of previous investors such as Kejora-SBI Orbit, Baramulti Group, and New Energy Nexus Indonesia. At least $7,25 million was booked in this round to increase the penetration and presence of electric motorbike battery exchange and infrastructure services in various regions of Indonesia.

Established since 2019 ago, Swap Energi tries to answer the main challenges of transitioning from petrol motorbikes to electric motorbikes, especially for users with a high level of mobility. Charging a battery that takes hours is considered to be less effective for some types of use, such as motorbike taxis online or long trips by motorbike, so Swap is here with a battery exchange service solution.

According to the website, currently there are more than 1300 battery exchange centers spread across dozens of cities in Java, Sumatra, Bali, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. The company also collaborates with modern retailers such as Alfamart, Alfamidi, Shell, BP-AKR, and Circle-K for the placement of battery exchange infrastructure.

There are three main products Energy Swaps. First, they provide Swap Batteries which are designed with standardization for various types of electric motorbikes. Second, Swap Stations for exchanging electric batteries. And third, Swap App as a user management application.

Currently Smoot and Minerva are the two electric motorbike manufacturers who are official partners for the use of Swap electric batteries.

The acceleration of the Swap business is at the right momentum at a time when the government has ambitious targets for electricity conversion. It is estimated that it will be available in 2023 about 75 thousand electric motor unit on the road. The government has a target of doubling it to 13 million units by 2030.

On a separate occasion, Irwan said that Swap's main focus was becoming support system in terms of providing infrastructure, to provide a better driver experience and after-sales service for electric vehicles. The tests carried out with Smoot, the first electric motorbike with a Swap battery exchange system, are claimed to be successful and will be replicated with other electric motorbike brands in Indonesia.

Technology companies involved in the electric vehicle market in Indonesia are adopting two different approaches. The first approach involves producing electric vehicles for consumers with purchase or subscription options, with players such as Charged, Alva One, ION Mobility and Electrum.

On the other hand, the second approach is focused on developing key components of electric vehicles, especially batteries, with companies such as Swap and Gogoro. gogoro itself began to enter Indonesia after receiving funding support from Gojek.