Kate raises $7.6 million for her micro electric cars

The French startup Kate has raised 7.6 million dollars (7 million euros) from a group of business angels. As I wrote in my previous article on Kate, the company has ambitious goals when it comes to everyday mobility. He plans to use the funding to develop an alternative to regular cars (electric or not) by making something smaller, cheaper and easier to maintain.

Among the startup’s investors are Julien Lemoine (co-founder and CTO of Algolia), Emmanuelle Brizay (AC8 INVEST), Christophe Maurissen (General Manager of Alcogroup), Romain Afflelou (CEO of Cosmo Connected), Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle (CEO of Theodo) and Antoine Leconte (founder of Cheerz).

And Kate is not starting from scratch. The company acquired NoSmoke, a small maker of electric vehicles inspired by the Mini Moke. This way Kate can reuse some parts and borrow some manufacturing processes that were used to produce the hobby cars.

But Kate’s next car, currently called the K1, will be designed for everyday use and not just for your vacation home. In Europe, people traveling from point A to point B use a large vehicle, such as a regular car, for 84% of their trips. It represents 11% of CO2 emissions. And yet, 98% of journeys are less than 80 kilometers (or 50 miles).

The Kate K1 will be a lightweight car that can reach a top speed of 90 km/h (56 mph). It is not designed for your long distance journeys. In this case, it is better to rent a normal car. It is also not designed for large cities as public transport, bicycles and shared vehicles work best in this environment.

But the Kate K1 would work well for people living in the suburbs or the countryside. It would be nice to drop your child off at school, go to work and drop by the supermarket. It will have four seats and the entry level should offer a battery range of 200 kilometers (124 miles).

Kate has an aggressive schedule as she wants to unveil the K1 in Q3 2023. In addition to the mystery renders, here’s what the Original, the currently available leisure car looks like: