OMOWAY, a China-born intelligent mobility startup building smart electric motorcycles, has completed consecutive Series A and Series A+ financing rounds as it begins global deliveries of its flagship OMO-X model, starting with Indonesia.
The company said the Series A+ round was led by Lochpine Capital, an industrial investment fund backed by battery giant CATL. Its Series A round was led by Monolith, with CICC Capital and existing backer ZhenFund also participating.
OMOWAY did not disclose the exact amount raised, saying only that the two rounds brought in “tens of millions of US dollars”.
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Other investors in the company include Hongshan, RocketsCapital, the corporate venture capital arm of XPeng, and Hui Capital, an industrial fund founded by a BYD co-founder.
Founded in July 2024, OMOWAY is positioning itself at the intersection of electric two-wheelers, robotics and connected mobility. Its first product, OMO-X, is marketed as a mass-produced self-balancing smart motorcycle built on the company’s proprietary OMO-ROBOT architecture.
The company has picked Indonesia as its first delivery market, a logical but highly competitive launchpad. Indonesia is one of the world’s largest motorcycle markets, with more than 120 million motorcycles on its roads, and two-wheelers remain the backbone of daily commuting, informal commerce and last-mile logistics across the archipelago.
Indonesia first, Southeast Asia next
OMOWAY said it began the first global customer deliveries of OMO-X in June, with Indonesia receiving the initial batch. The startup claims OMO-X became the top electric motorcycle brand in Indonesia by order volume during its launch month, although it did not disclose the number of units ordered or delivered.
The company has also set up dozens of dealer locations across Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, other parts of Java and Bali. After Indonesia, OMOWAY plans to expand deliveries to Thailand, Singapore, Europe and other markets.
The Southeast Asian angle is central to OMOWAY’s expansion story. Unlike Europe or the US, where electric cars dominate the electrification narrative, Southeast Asia’s transition is more likely to be led by motorcycles. In Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, two-wheelers are not niche vehicles; they are mass-market mobility infrastructure.
Indonesia has set ambitious goals to accelerate electric vehicle adoption, including targets for millions of electric motorcycles on the road by the end of the decade. Yet adoption has remained slower than policymakers hoped, held back by pricing, battery concerns, charging access, resale uncertainty and consumer loyalty to established petrol brands such as Honda and Yamaha.
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This is the gap OMOWAY is trying to enter: a market where the need is obvious, but where electric motorcycle makers still have to prove that they can offer not just lower running costs, but also reliability, service coverage and a better riding experience.
A crowded electric motorcycle field
OMOWAY is arriving in Indonesia at a time when the electric two-wheeler market is becoming increasingly crowded.
Local and regional players include Alva, backed by Indonesia’s Indika Energy; Polytron, which has pushed battery leasing models; Smoot, which has worked with battery-swapping infrastructure; and Gesits, one of Indonesia’s early domestic electric motorcycle brands. Singapore-headquartered ION Mobility is also targeting Indonesia with its M1-S electric scooter and has raised capital from investors including TVS Motor.
Beyond startups, Japanese incumbents remain the most formidable competitors. Honda and Yamaha have spent decades building dense dealership, financing and servicing networks across Southeast Asia. Their petrol motorcycles dominate roads from Jakarta to Ho Chi Minh City, and any meaningful shift to electric two-wheelers will require consumers to trust new brands on after-sales service, battery durability and spare parts availability.
China’s electric two-wheeler ecosystem is another competitive force. Chinese manufacturers have scale, supply-chain advantages and battery access, but they have also faced the challenge of adapting products to Southeast Asia’s road conditions, pricing expectations and regulatory requirements.
OMOWAY is attempting to differentiate through intelligence rather than price alone. The OMO-X comes with a digital key, a large smart navigation display and remote vehicle control. A higher-end Balance version adds low-speed balance assistance using the company’s self-balancing technology.
That feature is meant to address one of the oldest problems in motorcycling: instability at low speeds. In dense urban environments such as Jakarta, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, where riders frequently crawl through traffic, stop suddenly or carry passengers and cargo, low-speed control can be more than a novelty. If the technology works reliably at scale, it could appeal to newer riders, delivery workers and urban commuters who want the convenience of a motorcycle without some of the intimidation that comes with handling one.
From motorcycle to wheeled robot
OMOWAY’s broader pitch goes beyond electric motorcycles. The company describes itself as a wheeled robotics company, not simply a vehicle manufacturer.
Its OMO-ROBOT architecture is designed as a closed-loop system integrating perception, decision-making, execution and information transmission. In practical terms, the company wants to turn two-wheelers into “two-wheeled robots” capable of sensing, computing and responding to riding conditions.
OMOWAY said it has also developed Mobility One, a fully self-developed wheeled robot platform, with a prototype expected to be unveiled later this year. The company sees potential applications beyond personal mobility, including logistics and public services.
That ambition mirrors a broader shift in mobility investing. Investors are increasingly looking beyond hardware margins and asking whether vehicle startups can build software-led platforms, recurring service revenue, fleet management tools or robotics capabilities. This is especially relevant in Southeast Asia, where last-mile delivery, ride-hailing and urban logistics remain large markets but are under pressure to reduce costs and emissions.
Still, execution will matter more than positioning. Building smart electric motorcycles at scale is difficult. So is maintaining dealer networks across fragmented island geographies such as Indonesia. The company will need to show that OMO-X can survive heat, humidity, rough roads, flooding, heavy usage and inconsistent charging access.
The road ahead
OMOWAY’s fresh funding gives it capital and strategic backing at a time when the electric two-wheeler market is shifting from early pilots to commercial competition. CATL-linked capital could also prove useful as battery supply, safety and cost remain key factors in the sector.
But Indonesia will be a demanding first test. Consumers in the market are value-conscious, petrol motorcycles are affordable and widely serviced, and electric alternatives still need stronger financing, charging and battery-swapping ecosystems to reach mass adoption.
For Southeast Asia, however, the stakes are significant. If electric two-wheelers can reach price parity, improve safety and integrate smarter software, they could play a major role in reducing urban emissions and fuel dependence across the region.
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OMOWAY’s first deliveries in Indonesia mark the beginning of that test. The company now has to prove that its “smart motorcycle” thesis is not just a technology story, but a commercially viable mobility business in one of the world’s toughest and most important two-wheeler markets.
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