Florida-based electric vehicle company Revolution Brands has acquired Californian micromobility start-up Meka to expand its R&D and manufacturing capabilities.

Meka was started by Sophia Tung and Wing Chuen Lam, based out of San Francisco, in early 2021 to create a personal electric vehicles platform.

An already established Revolution Brands had been on the lookout for investment opportunities in the EV manufacturing space and, after an introduction to Meka in 2021 during its initial seed raise, the relationship grew between the firms.

Revolution had already begun the process of creating its proprietary micromobility line and realised the acquisition of Meka could fast-track this development through a wealth of knowledge by combining Revolution’s infrastructure and distribution expertise with Meka’s in-house proprietary IP and technologies.

“After speaking to so many different companies within the micromobility spectrum, it was refreshing to see Meka tackle design challenges by prioritising the holistic rider experience,” said Federico Urdaneta, Revolution vice president. “We were impressed at the level of detail given to every component of their vehicles, which aligned with our goal of providing a premium, rider centric experience.”

Meka is advised by micromobility industry veterans. Its vehicles, software and hardware platforms are designed and engineered by alums from Rivian and Twitter. Sophia Tung, CEO of Meka, went to Purdue for a bachelors in computer science and Wing Chuen Lam, CTO of Meka, went to UC Berkeley for electrical engineering and computer science. The two founders got their start in micromobility when they first became interested in building and riding electric skateboards.

“After college, Wing and I shared an interest in building high-performance electric skateboards and experimenting with related technology,” said Tung. “Wing later expanded to electric scooters and created a retrofit kit for popular electric scooter models, adding more range, power and features. This project sparked our realisation that the market could benefit from our expertise given the saturation of poorly designed and engineered products. The demand for our kits continued to grow and this led to us founding Meka.”

Meka is a micromobility design and manufacturing firm that specialises in software and hardware for personal electric vehicles. The team consists of engineers and designers across multiple disciplines including product engineering, software development and human interfaces.

Revolution Brands is a designer, manufacturer, marketer and distributor of personal electric vehicles, lifestyle products and mobile connectivity accessories. Headquartered in Miami, the organisation operates as the parent company for a portfolio of brands across its core segments that include SimplyEV and Kimoa.