Conifer locks down $20M seed round for its ‘drop-in’ electric hub motor

Summary

A handful of engineers who worked at Lucid Motors and on Apple’s electric car project have launched a new startup that puts a fresh spin on electric hub motors. The new startup, called Conifer, has developed its motor to be free of rare earth elements by using more abundant ferrite magnets, which the company says not only reduces cost but limits supply chain risk. Conifer also says its proprietary stator offers higher efficiency and power than comparable options while being half the size.The company’s timing — a new volatile era of tariffs and a trade war with China — is auspicious. And its tech has attracted some serious financial attention. The motor, and Conifer’s approach to building it, helped it build out a $20 million seed round from a host of deep tech investors, including True Ventures, MaC Ventures, MFV Partners, and others. True Ventures’ Rohit Sharma has joined Conifer’s board. Conifer arrives on the scene as progress in electric motor development seems to be advancing rapidly. Companies like Germany’s DeepDrive and Finland’s Donut Lab are taking novel approaches to making electric motors more efficient, powerful, and affordable. This all comes at a time when batteries — which typically account for a bulk of the cost in an electric vehicle — are still getting cheaper, but are not seeing the dramatic price decreases that were evident a decade ago. Conifer’s initially targeting the small mobility space with its hub motor, which it touts as “drop-in,” meaning customers can replace existing hub motors without any major design changes. It’s going after on- and off-road vehicles with two, three, or four wheels. The company says it has also found interest from lawnmower and tractor makers, and even HVAC companies. It already has a handful of global customers and plans to start shipping production motors later this year. Ankit Somani, one of Conifer’s co-founders, told TechCrunch in an interview that he was frustrated by the lack of investment and innovation in ...