Hopper wants to raise money from private investors

The start-up became known through the TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen". Now it wants to raise new money.

The mobility start-up Hopper wants to raise money from private investors. Together with partner Companisto, the company says it has already carried out an "angel club investment round" in which investors were able to get on board from 10,000 euros. Now they apparently also want to address a broader audience and raise a total of 500,000 euros in investments.

The concept of the company, which was founded in 2019, is a hybrid of an e-bike and a car called Hopper. According to the start-up, the vehicle can be used without a driver's license. In addition, the Hopper only requires around one seventh of the electricity that an electric car consumes. Mobility Hopper estimates a range of 60 kilometers for the electric motor. They presented it on the TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen", among others. At the end of 2021, Mobility Hopper completed pre-seed financing without disclosing the amount.

In an interview with Startbase, co-founder Georg Schieren announced: "With our recently completed financing round, we are now building an optimized prototype. Although the current one is already in operation, it is primarily a design prototype and therefore not yet suitable for test drives by external parties. We are also now testing various components from suppliers and looking at which ones we want to take into series production. In mid-2022, we will have completed the first near-series prototype, which we will then also offer for test drives. Six months later, we want to start series production, for which we will then raise more capital."

The start-up is now looking for money again in order to speed up production. For private investors, such an investment can be worthwhile, but also extremely risky, as Companisto itself writes on its website: "Start-up investments are venture capital investments. Investments in start-ups are aimed at very high returns. The aim of every investment is to multiply the investment amount, i.e. to achieve a return of several hundred percent. At the same time, there is a high "total loss risk" with every investment.