BRD Motorcycles Raises $4.5 Million in Series A Funding

It has been a long time coming, but we have some good news from the folks at BRD Motorcycles, as the electric motorcycle startup has just closed a $4.5 million Series A funding round.

The investment round was led by Spanish investment firm Modara Technologies, which was joined by Cedarville Investments, Tesla Motors founders Martin Eberhard & Marc Tarpenning, and Pedro Zapata Gil, the CEO of Baluarte Real Estate in Spain.

To-date that makes $8.2 million in capital raised by BRD, and now the San Francisco startup will be able to go ahead with production on its BRD RedShift electric dirt bike and supermoto offerings. BRD will show the production-ready RedShift MX & RedShift SM at the AIMExpo in two weeks’ time, which will retail for $14,995 and $15,495, respectively.

The BRD RedShift line aims to compete against 250cc class four-stroke machines on motocross and supermoto tracks, showcasing the performance advantages that electric drivetrains have over internal combustion engines.

Having ridden an early prototype of the BRD RedShift SM (show above), we have been eagerly awaiting BRD’s production machines. The RedShift we rode was a very competent and fast machine, even in prototype form, and we have heard that folks at BRD have only improved the design since then.

We expect that with the high price tag that comes with electrics, early BRD customers will be riders who are looking for the utmost performance in their MX and supermoto machines, of any power type, and are willing to pay the premium in price for that performance.

We should know the final specs, get our first photos, and know the delivery dates of the BRD RedShift at the AIMExpo, on October 16th. Stay tuned.