As the old adage goes, “necessity is the mother of invention.” And nothing could be truer than with the development of the Delfast e-bike.
Delfast CEO and founder Daniel Tonkopiy wanted to solve a problem. He needed a new iPhone immediately and couldn’t get one delivered for three days in Kyiv, Ukraine. And at that point he had an “aha!” moment.
Daniel decided to create a service that could deliver goods from online stores with the speed of a pizza delivery. “If you order a laptop or anything our courier will bring it to you within an hour,” said Tonkopiy. And so Delfast Co. was born in November 2014.
e-Bikes were considered the best vehicle to enable his couriers to make efficient, fast deliveries. But, the e-bikes that were produced in China could only go a short distance on a single charge.
“Today e-bikes which are on the market they are more like toys because they have a range of 30 to 40 miles, so you would not even get from San Francisco to Silicon Valley on this e-bike,” said Tonkopiy.
So he and his engineering staff began to tinker with some models that they purchased from China and eventually created an e-bike that has a range of 236 miles on one charge. More like a full-featured e-vehicle than a bicycle it is suitable both for on-road and off-road use. This Delfast engineered product is manufactured in Kyiv, but will be sold worldwide.
Initially, Delfast secured one round of seed feeding for its delivery service worth $250,000 from the venture capital company Imperious Group on Feb 4, 2015.
Later on September 20, 2017, Delfast launched a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign for its e-bike product. The company exceeded its goal, reaching $165,800 by November 1.
e-bike production will begin for the 75 Kickstarter backers in February 2018 with delivery in May.
- Delfast CEO Daniel Tonkopiy discussed his company and e-vehicle and talks about his plans to sell his product in the U.S. and EU in a September 2017 interview for the monthly podcast Made in Ukraine Tech Startup Edition.
