With extra folks beginning to combine electrical automobiles into their lives, the realm of prospects appears large open in case you’re an electrical bike maker in 2022. Momentum retains constructing, batteries and expertise preserve enhancing, and extra individuals are open to the concept of making an attempt a distinct technique of transportation than ever earlier than.
Of course, issues develop into extra sophisticated in May, 2022, in case you’re Ukranian firm Delfast with employees based mostly each within the U.S. and in Ukraine. The crew is a tight-knit group, led by CEO Daniel Tonkopi. He grew up within the metropolis of Almaty, which is the previous capital of Kazakhstan. When Tonkopi was 11, he rode a bike for the primary time whereas visiting his grandfather, who lived close to the Ural Mountains in Russia. It was a Dnepr sidecar machine, and the sensation of freedom was one that might go on to vary his life endlessly—even when he didn’t understand it but.
Later, as he grew, Tonkopi traveled. He says that all over the place he’s been, individuals are what make the distinction. So far, he’s lived and labored in Singapore, Mexico, and Portugal, simply to call just a few locations. Eventually, he settled in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2009 the place he began Delfast. Above all, he says crucial ingredient to anywhere is the folks—and he felt utterly at residence with the folks of Kiev.
In 2021, Tonkopi and some different workforce members moved Delfast’s headquarters from Kiev to Los Angeles, California. They now reside collectively in what Tonkopi describes as a startup home (and he provides, for the report, that the TV present Silicon Valley shouldn’t be that removed from actuality). As of May, 2022, Delfast maintains its headquarters and ultimate meeting facility in Los Angeles, and its R&D facility in Ukraine—the place nearly all of its staff are presently based mostly.
We lately had the chance to discuss each the joy and the challenges with Delfast CEO Daniel Tonkopi (with just a few appearances by PR supervisor Iryna Zaloha). The following dialog has been flippantly edited for readability.
Yes, completely, positively. I’ll simply offer you some figures. The first quarter of 2022, this 12 months, we tripled our income, evaluating to the primary quarter of 2021.
In April, we made a historic most of our gross sales quantity, so we’re rising. April, [we] made plus 70 % evaluating to March, so we’re rising, we’re actually rising quick, and we have now enormous demand.
We converse with sellers, we signal contracts, I’m signal[ing] contracts with sellers virtually each day, and we see elevated curiosity [in] our bikes from clients right here within the US. And we made a proper transfer to come back to Los Angeles, as a result of now, clients and sellers are understanding that we’re right here, that we have now our inventory right here, we have now bikes in inventory in Los Angeles, we have now spare components if one thing’s damaged, we are able to reply shortly to their requests. So yeah, that was completely the correct transfer to be right here, nearer to our clients.
Yes, the brief reply is sure, and simply to elaborate, about one and a half 12 months in the past, we analyzed our gross sales quantity once we had been simply in Kiev, once we had only one workplace in Ukraine, and we had been promoting globally from our Kiev workplace, and we realized that 80 % of our gross sales quantity comes from the US.
15 % is simply European Union nations, like totally different nations, all of the European, and 5 % of the remainder of the world. So, we understand that we have now to be right here, close to our clients.
Oh, thanks for asking.
It’s been robust, after all. First of all, we stabilized our workforce in each nations, in Ukraine and right here in [the] U.S. That was the primary purpose, to ensure that everybody is correct, everyone seems to be protected, or as protected as they will [be]. And we did all that we might as an organization, and personally, we additionally helped with relocation, with cash, with the whole lot. We had our reserve fund in our firm. Of course, we took all the cash and we mentioned, everybody, nobody goes to be fired or lower in wage, nothing, so we preserve working, you could possibly ensure that you may have your cash and all of the assist that we are able to.
And I’d say, it took about perhaps two to a few weeks simply to arrange for all the problems to relocate some folks to [the] west of Ukraine, to European Union nations, to our American workplace, and now, all our workforce is protected and proceed working, so we simply preserve working.
Our enterprise processes weren’t affected, as a result of our foremost manufacturing is in China, and our ultimate meeting is right here in Los Angeles. So yeah, as I discussed too, throughout the struggle, we have now elevated our gross sales quantity, and yeah, the whole lot goes, when it comes to enterprise and logistics, the whole lot goes actually nice.
I would not say [that] about Ukraine, sadly, however we do the whole lot to win as firm, me personally, we donate 5 % to the folks of Ukraine, and I [have been] chatting with senators about help [for] Ukraine, we go to protest rallies, we tackle congressmen, and we assist with humanitarian help, so we do what we are able to from right here, from overseas, and yeah, it really works.
![Delfast Top 3.0 - Riding](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/BXXZBw/s3/delfast-top-3.0---riding.jpg)
We discovered our advertising director right here in California, and now we have now 9 folks in our California workplace, and about 30 folks in Ukrainian workplace. Just to elaborate, me as CEO, chief income officer, chief advertising officer and chief of engineering are right here, so we promote from Californian workplace and we have now R&D workplace in Ukraine, like buyer assist, gross sales assist, our finance and HR, so our assist workplace is in Ukraine.
Yes, that is an excellent query. I [want to] inform you a private story. I used to be 11 the primary time I rode a bike. [It] was a village within the coronary heart of Russia. My mom was from Russia, and close to [the] Ural Mountains, so my grandfather had a Dnepr bike with a facet automobile. I used to be a boy, I used to be a child, so I took his Dnepr, and that was [the] first time I obtained a shot of adrenaline.
Yes, and I [fell] in love [with] bikes and bikes and all this, like two wheelers and three wheelers, as a result of I might really feel this freedom that I might go wherever on the river, on some fields, simply on the neighbor village, simply wherever. And the Dnepr was a legendary Soviet bike, they produced a number of tens of millions of bikes, actually, in order that was a legend, completely whole legend.
So, perhaps three years in the past, we in Kiev, understand that we now can do one thing with this trademark, as a result of in ‘90s it [went] bankrupt, the factory was just sold to a developer, and they created office buildings there, and our Ukrainian office is located at the same place where this Dnepr bikes were produced in Soviet times.
So, we were sitting at the same place of the production, [and] we thought, “Okay, we are making bikes and we can revive this legendary trademark—but now in new century, with new motor, with electric power, so, let’s do it.” And we [wanted] to get the trademark and all the IP rights for this motorcycle, so we thought, “Yeah, okay, we can do it now, we are allowed to do it now.”
Our prototype was developed by Sergey Malik, who is a multiple record holder of world records and Ukrainian records in motorcycles and in cars. Sergey helped develop this bike power train, and he established the Bonneville speed record in August. It was 104 miles as far as I remember…Well, but this story is just in the beginning, because this is just a prototype. We are going to go to mass production and to produce this powerful bike in the next year.
When the war began, we realized… We had concerns about the naming, because Dnepr… Dneper, with E in the middle, it’s a Russian style of naming, but not everyone in our company likes this Russian style.
We thought it could be better to use Ukrainian pronunciation, which is the Dnipro. After [the] war started, we made our decision, okay, we’re not going to use the Russian Soviet name, Dnepr, and now it’ll be only Dnipro, [the] Ukrainian name.
Also, we had a design developed by Russian industrial designer, motorcycle designer, so he made it in 2021, but now we realized, okay, we stop all the communication with Russian suppliers, with Russian contractors, with Russian anyone, with clients.
So, we, as Delfast company, we stopped all the cooperation with Russia. That’s why we decided to stop using this design, provided by Russian designer. So, now we don’t have [a] design, but it’s okay, we will work on it, we’ll come back to it later, so now this project is on pause, at least the war is over, but no more Russian design.
Yes, definitely. Thank you for believing. And we are actually going to launch a new model. Yeah, it wouldn’t be a heavy motorcycle.
During the war, our designers developed [an] absolutely new model. Literally, during the last two and a half months, they came up with new project, new prototype, and it is based on more than 50,000 requests from potential clients, from bike users, from e-bike users, from our customers, from different forums and from everywhere.
So, people who love e-bikes just gave us their feedback, and we collected it, analyzed it. And so, just a few examples, one person said, “I want swappable battery.” And our current model doesn’t have one. Okay, swappable battery.
A second [person] said, “I need a basket to put bags from grocery store.” Yeah, another one said, “Okay, I [also need] a bag.” But for another person, “I want to put my dogs there.” So et cetera, et cetera. We analyzed more than 50,000 asks and requests, and our designers and engineers came with this new model.
We already produced [the] first prototype. It happened during, literally, the last two and a half months.
Yeah, it usually takes two years or something, the development of new model, but the war has empowered us and made us stronger.
Yes, yes, this is a good impact of what’s happening. We don’t have much good news, but this is good news, that we started to work harder and we put our efforts into creating something new. We cannot just [be] afraid. Hidden in the basement. Yeah, we cannot do it forever. So, you want to create something, and we created this new model. So, in August, we are going to launch our crowdfunding campaign.
Now we are preparing these marketing materials, video and everything. So, coming soon, stay tuned. We’ll be glad to share more information with you later.
It’ll be more mass product, because people were telling us, “Okay, I don’t need the battery for 200 miles, I don’t need such power, I will be fine with 70 miles.” Okay, which cuts the battery three times, and the price goes down.
Other people said, “I don’t need a heavy motorcycle, I like the lighter one.” Women said, “We also want an e-bike.” So, this one [the Top 3.0] is more brutal, it’s for men mostly. We created this new model for both men and women. And the most important thing, we will create a really smart bike.
We have our proprietary onboard computer, so it’s a fully connected bike, and it’ll have a full functionality mobile app. You are in this industry, and you know that when we get an e-bike, just random e-bike, you usually don’t have a mobile app.
But when people buy an e-bike, they don’t want just a bicycle with the motor, they want the smart bike, they want a Tesla on two wheels. So, this is what we do, we are creating a gadget on two wheels, with all the features, like push notifications if something is happening. If the bike is stolen, for example, then the owner will see where it is right now, and our engineers can block the motor and everything. History of travels, all the temperature and telemetric 24/7, so a lot of smart features with our onboard fully functional computer.
![Delfast Top 3.0 - Left Side Riding](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/9mm8gl/s3/delfast-top-3.0---left-side-riding.jpg)
Yes, we are going to announce this bike on 1st of August. [Also,] our current model [the Top 3.0] will be upgraded in June [2022].
Smart features. The computer will be implemented first in our current model, which is Top 3.0, and it’ll be Top 3.0i, intelligent.
We opened our workshop and assembly facilities here in Los Angeles, so now we are making our final assembly here in LA, which makes a big difference, because now we have our quality controls here, we have our engineers here and we have a place just to come. Well, it’s not open to the public, but we have some people who are coming, they just want to speak with our engineers, so yes, now they can do this.
We also fixed our supply chain issues. Previously, last year, we had delivery time of about four to five months, because of the global logistic issues with China issues and everything. Today, our delivery time is just up to two weeks. Usually it is one week, but okay, let’s say one to two weeks.
Yes. We have our stock here in Los Angeles, so yeah, bikes are available, and yeah, it’s really important, especially now, in the beginning of the season.
I just don’t remember the exact number of dealers, but we have [a] chain of dealers in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, in San Diego, across California. We have dealers in New York and Florida and Miami in particular. We speak with many dealers in Texas and other states. So currently, we have most of our dealers in these four states, and we are constantly working on expanding our network.
Of course. We’ll deliver a bike to him or to her, and we will find a workshop near them. So yeah, we will provide our warranty support and after warranty support, so a person could buy and could find some spare parts at the nearest bike shop. So yes, this is how we usually work, for example, if a person from a far village orders a bike, it’s our job to find a bike dealer and the bike workshop in his or her area, and to provide the best service.
When we implement this new onboard computer, starting from 1st of June, the updates will be available just via wifi or SIM card. Usually SIM card.
Yes, definitely. We will even send these updates to those bikes and to their mobile applications, so they will see some notification on their smartphone that the update is ready, so please install if you want to see these features.
Unfortunately, we won’t have it for iOS at the very beginning. But so, on the 1st of June, we are going to launch our Android application, and soon, in the next, I hope, couple of months, we are going to launch iOS application as well.
![Delfast Top 3.0](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/7ZZEY7/s3/delfast-top-3.0.jpg)
I want to share that we are going establish a production facility here in the US. This was one of our biggest goals, not just to move headquarters, but to move the assembly here, to the U.S.
Bikes will be fully assembled here, and probably it will be Texas, or Nevada, might be California, but we are still searching for the best places in terms of taxes and costs and everything.
Our goal is to move production from China to the U.S., and we started our venture round, series A round, so now I’m speaking with investors almost every day, I have several meetings with potential VCs and funds, or so we are collecting $20 million to move production and to scale our business even faster. We are growing right now, year to year, so we are going to grow 10X.
We are aiming to close around the end of summer, but of course it depends on investors. As soon as we pass due diligence and all the processes. Well, our best timeframe would be until the end of summer, but we are flexible. It usually takes time. This is definitely important news that I wanted to share.
Yeah, thank you. And I’m really excited to be here and to work here, and I can see that there… From definitely Los Angeles area, in my opinion, is the world capital of electric vehicles.
Right, right. And we had a chance to compare. So, we are selling bikes, e-bikes, and we know the situation globally, and I can see that Los Angeles… There are two places with a lot of EV fans, in California there are, in San Francisco and Los Angeles. But Los Angeles, probably because of the weather, probably because of the ocean, I don’t know why, but here, even more EV fans than in San Francisco. So, I would say, definitely, Los Angeles is the best place to launch a global EV company.
It’s like if you’re a director of a movie, and if you want to create a movie which will be shown in all cinemas all over the world, and if you want to get an Oscar, you have to be here, mostly, in Los Angeles, in Hollywood, because yeah, it’s the capital of film industry. So, I believe that Los Angeles is the capital of EV industry as well.
And I’m thrilled to be here, and I’m super excited about doing business here. I see a lot of support from the [federal] government, [and] from the California governor’s office. So, and now, today, America is moving towards electric vehicles. [President] Biden has banned Russian oil, and he said that the nation should refuse using oil and gas in the long-term perspective, and he’s investing billions of dollars into EV infrastructure.
So, I believe that in the next 5, 10 years, we’ll see huge differences on the roads. We’ll see more electric cars than traditional gas cars, which will make a huge impact on the environment, the air will be cleaner. And I mentioned that I came from Kazakhstan, but I didn’t say that my father was an ecologist, and [that] he was a professor of ecology. He wrote more than 400 books, about ecology, about clean air, pollution of oceans, nuclear disarmament in Soviet Union and everything, so all the environmental issues.
So, I’m a kind of second-generation environmentalist, and I wanted to make something for this world. And when I was younger, and I lived in Almaty, I saw a huge ecological problem in Almaty. It has smoke, it has pollution, polluted air, so the air in Almaty is literally black, because yeah, the city is surrounded by mountains from three sides, and because of that, there is-
Yes, yes, exactly, yes. Just, the smoke is staying over the city and not going anywhere, so that’s why there are a lot of air breathing diseases, like problems with lungs, just kids and adults, yeah. And so, from a very young age, I wanted to make the air cleaner, I wanted to do something about it, and now I have this opportunity. Electric vehicles are the answer. So, I believe in 10 years, our cities will be much cleaner, and our air.
Yes, we’re working on it. I’m building a global company from here, from LA, and this is probably the best place in the world to create global EV business.
![Delfast Top 3.0 - Snow](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/Ooo9yY/s3/delfast-top-3.0---snow.jpg)
Iryna: Daniel, personally, and all our company helped our employee, or employees from Kherson city, which is under occupation, under Russian occupation, to be evacuated from there. And actually, one of our employees, N, was under occupation, and Russian soldiers came to her house, so it’s the reality of Ukrainian teammates.
Daniel: They came to her house and asked her to show her phone, and they were with guns. Okay, she couldn’t say no. She showed her iPhone and they saw some anti-Russian post, anti-Russian memes, and so, they deleted all the information, they formatted her phone. You know how to do it, to make it like a new one.
Yeah, and said, “Okay, your phone has new life now, and you have to come to our police station tomorrow, and you will have new life also.”
You know what? She said that some journalists who were pro-Ukrainians previously, after this visit to police station, they became pro-Russians, and she didn’t want to know why it happened. It was really absolutely terrifying.
Iryna: Now she’s in a safer place. She’s in Odesa. But actually, we have a meeting every Monday, and our teammates just share their stories, because personally, I [am] based in Ukraine too, but I’m based mostly within the Western half, so I’m roughly protected right here.
Daniel: Yeah, we simply need to ensure that everybody is okay. This is how our week begins. We see everybody, we ask how is she or he doing, what is going on on, the place is she or he? And sure, N is now in Odesa, which is comparatively protected. Yes, not absolutely protected, there is no such thing as a ‘safe place’.
But after all, it is significantly better than Kherson, which is occupied by Russia. Another colleague of Iryna’s, D, is in Kharkiv, and yeah, after all you already know, what’s taking place Kharkiv, and when she joins our calls, she has black curtains on her home windows, and [it’s] darkish, no lights in her room. And we requested, “Could you please turn on the lights?” And she mentioned, “No, because I will [light] my window for Russian missiles.”
And we mentioned, “Of course you don’t have to.”
Absolutely.
Iryna: But all of us, it seems to be like we simply acquired used to working in such situations. I imagine that work is one thing that helps, indirectly, to outlive this time.
Iryna: Yeah.
Daniel: Yes, sure. And right here in LA, I began, within the first days of struggle, after all I used to be at rallies, at protest conferences, and I believed, “Okay, what else can I do? Rally is not enough.” It is important, clearly, I am going each time. Yeah, however what else can I do? I believed perhaps I ought to tackle, not simply to all of the folks, however to these explicit individuals who can assist, the congressmen and senators.
I simply made a publish on my Facebook and social media, “Hey guys, I’m making a group of people who will write to senators’ Twitters.” So, we began to share the data, as a result of they did not know what’s taking place, they did not have this info, so our mission was to coach them, to share.
We shared images, we shared our proof, and we’re from Ukraine and we reside in Ukraine, so we all know what is going on on. So, we simply entered each congressman and senator’s Twitter, and posted our tales, posted our wants. We mentioned, “Please help us, we need such humanitarian help, we need this weapon and that.” So, we began to talk on Twitter, to share this info.
After that, American residents joined this motion, the American protest actions from Venice Resistance, Indivisible Group and different teams with American folks, they began to assist us Ukrainians. And they mentioned, “Okay, this Twitter is good, but you should address directly to senators, you should write petitions to them, you should describe the situation in an official way.” We mentioned, “Okay, you know how it’s working, please help us.”
They helped us to arrange conferences with senators and congressmen. So as the following step, I had numerous conferences with congress individuals, and I collected a gaggle of Ukrainian leaders, like entrepreneurs like me, well-known YouTube bloggers, folks from finance, attorneys, and from totally different spheres, from actual property, like well-known Ukrainians. And I referred to as this group ULAW, which stands for Ukrainian Leaders Against the War.
As this group, we began to share the data from the guts of the battle, from the guts of the struggle, to senators. We had Zoom name with Congressman Swalwell in LA, for instance, and one man, he is a well known entrepreneur, he created a cyber sport workforce, primary on the earth, champion of DOTA, in case you’re conscious of [it]. Cyber sports activities, he is well-known, yeah.
He was suited in a army uniform, with a gun, and he mentioned, “Oh guys, sorry, I thought it’s 7:00 PM, but it’s 7:00 AM, so I am on duty, on combat duty now, is it okay?” And they mentioned, “Yeah, it’s okay. Could you please show us what’s happening?” And he confirmed us bombs. We might hear air raid sirens.
So, the congressman might see and listen to what’s taking place, and he might hear a narrative from N from Kherson, and D from Kharkiv. He might converse with them, in order that they shared their tales, what’s taking place, in order that they obtained all their clear and unfiltered info.
And after that, all the time, actually all the time, all this congress individual made some steps, some actions.
Either they signed [a] petition to Biden, or they addressed the California National Guard, or they supplied some humanitarian assist, et cetera, et cetera. So, on the finish of the day, all this work led to [S.3522, Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022]. So, all of the senators, 417 congress folks, voted for this Lend-Lease Act, and we have now our a part of affect on this 417, and perhaps 10 % or one thing, however we did an affect.
Absolutely. Yes, I completely agree. So, we did our half to assist Ukraine, to assist to signal this Lend-Lease Act, and we completely positive that now the struggle might be completed sooner, and Ukraine will certainly win. There aren’t any different choices, by no means, by no means, and solely win of Ukraine. And I’m sorry for my errors in English, I’m studying it.
Nice talking with you. It was a pleasure.