It was also announced that ARC Group makes a € 1.4 million investment in the new company. UNITI was originally founded in 2015 at Lund University in Sweden, and with the ambition to create an innovative Electric Vehicle (EV) company aiming to revolutionize the urban car market. UNITI quickly gained recognition for its vision of an urban electric car with a distinct manufacturing and distribution model.

“We are confident that we can help accelerate the time from prototype to serial production and to a leading niche market position.”

says Alexander Ocieczek, Managing Partner at ARC Group

UNITI set out to redesign all vehicle components to align with electric standards and replace traditional distribution methods with a direct-to-consumer model. In 2019, the company’s launch became Sweden’s largest crowdfunding project, raising over € 1.2 million from 550 investors within 36 hours. This was done on FundedbyMe. However, challenges, including regulatory hurdles and financial difficulties, led to UNITI filing for bankruptcy in 2022.

Despite setbacks, investor interest in UNITI’s core proposition and patents remained strong. In 2022, Daniel Daboczy, founder of FundedByMe, acquired UNITI’s assets and restructured the company. ARC Group’s € 1.4 million investment will support UNITI’s revival, with ARC’s consulting division playing a key role in guiding commercialization efforts, establishing manufacturing, and supply chains, primarily in Asia.

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We have followed the story over the years, and already in 2017 at the start of their journey we made an interview with Uniti founder Lewis Horne. There he amongst other talked about the need to “Don’t be afraid to be different”. And normal is certainly not how Uniti was.

If you want to get an insight what happened, read the article that Swedish magazine Filter recently posted: magasinetfilter.se/granskning/uniti/. It is in Swedish, but a long and good crafted article that follows what happened the different years, with the intro: “The worlds most innovative, modern and sustainable car company is Swedish. It has no engineers, no factory and causes no pollutions. How is that possible?”

After a period of silence lately from Uniti and it’s founder, the company has now filed for bankruptcy. Lewis Horne has set up a Youtube channel, where he said he will answer questions relating to what happened, and how a startup that was so hyped could fail.

You can follow the channel here, where Lewis has said he will answer questions: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3oJV0QGcjw

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Held at the company’s production facility in Landskrona, Uniti’s first annual launch event (U17) offered a first peek of the capabilities of Uniti One in front of a 2,000-people strong crowd of press, insiders, enthusiasts, investors, and partners.

Pressphoto: Uniti One

Audience members were given a hands-on preview of the vehicle’s many innovative features, with an energy efficiency (300km with only a 22kWh battery), and it’s unique and intuitive user experience. It can even be installed with accessories like a car windscreen sun shade. Lewis Horne, CEO of Uniti states:

“We are pleased to share our progress and demonstrate our vision for future mobility as we move towards mass production.”

Pressphoto: Lewis Horne, CEO of Uniti

A demonstration of its forward-thinking interior drew audible interest as it showcased two available steering options, one traditional and also their world-first, center pivot joystick control system unique to Uniti.

The event also included demonstrations and symposia from teams representing twenty-four key partners including Nvidia, Siemens, Tele2, E.ON, Kuka Robotics, Haldex, BorgWarner, Fanuc Robots and many more. To illustrate how the highly sustainable Uniti One will emit at least 75% less carbon across its lifecycle, partner Kuka Robotics demonstrated a vision of Uniti’s lean and automated approach to manufacturing, one that is significantly more scalable than traditional automotive production methods. If you would like to have more information regarding cars then just contact these guys.

Uniti will offer a line of two, four and five-seat vehicle models, with first deliveries targeted for 2019. The high-end versions will retail for around €19,900, with lower cost options available for as low as €14 900. Eager customers can join the growing list, with over 1,000 pre-orders to date.

Further details and purchase options are available online at our through Uniti retail partner MediaMarkt. Prospective drivers in Sweden can also now visit in-store showrooms to see the Uniti One for themselves by visiting MediaMarkt locations in Malmö (Svågertorp) and Stockholm (Nacka). The launch of these in-store locations will occur December 7th.

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The production line at the new plant will be launched on December 7, 2017, and the entire move of the Swedish manufacturer of electric cars shall have been completed by March 2018 .

After 2 years of evaluation process, Uniti finally decided to place its European production plant in Landskrona and will launch its new electric car with a big event on December 7, 2017, where many people, including current investors (over 1000 people), car buyers (with current 915 pre-orders), Unitis partners and supporters, will meet and have the chance to see the new plant on field. The event will also include an exhibition of Unit’s key partners, including Siemens and KUKA Robotics.

During the first year at the new plant, Uniti will expand its evaluation process of the prototype to be launched on December 7, 2017. In parallel, planning for production will steadily go on. The new facility is located in central Landskrona with good access to logistics solutions, storage facilities and flexible connections with Copenhagen, Malmö, Lund as well as surrounding areas.

“Landskrona is an ideal place to manufacture and assemble our products. It is also obvious that Landskrona has ambitious plans to become a center for new technologies in the region and they have all resources in place to reach this goal“, says Lewis Horne, Uniti CEO.

Landskrona has a long tradition of work to convert to renewable energy and sustainable transport. Besides, the city has established logistics center for air-, rail- and truck freights. Landskrona also has high-speed internet coverage via fiber, and can provide sustainable energy production plants.

Read more about Uniti

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Till now, the company received over 800 pre-orders in value of SEK 160M (ca. € 16M). The aforesaid amount also includes vehicles that were previously ordered.

“Those who pre-ordered our vehicles are actually our best fans. They followed up our development from the beginning”, told Rapidus Verena Kitowski, communication manager at Uniti.

Pre-orders received are not binding. A pre-order can be made by making a bank deposit for this purpose. The price of a model may reach SEK 200.000 (ca. € 21.000 ). There will be even cheaper models, however, with less technical specifications. According to Uniti plan, the production of electrical vehicles shall last until summer 2019 to be able to present the first electric car manufactured by the company.

Uniti has an official partnership with Siemens Nordics to facilitate the process of implementing a fully-automated production line. However, where the unit will be erected, is still unclear. In any case, Uniti planned to inaugurate the unit at the beginning of 2018.

Last Tuesday, Uniti managed to secure approximately SEK 6M (ca. € 630.000) in the frame of its ongoing campaign, which targets in total SEK 35M (about €3.5M).

“The campaign is open for the public for probably two more weeks. However, the round can be closing sooner when bigger investors join the round”, Verena Kitowski added.

A series A funding round is planned to run during the first quarter of 2018. Last year, Uniti succeeded to gather roughly SEK 16M (€1.6M) through equity crowdfunding on the Swedish platform FundedByMe.

Uniti’s high-tech vehicles are light-weight with 450kg and are manufactured with carbon fibres and bio-composite based sustainable materials.Uniti vehicles shall weight 450 kg and are manufactured along with sustainable composites. The maximum speed of each car shall not exceed 90-130 km/h, depending on its model.

Uniti is located at Tellusgatan in Lund and currently stations about 45 employees.

Source: Rapidus

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Uniti the beginning

When Lewis Horne decided to turn his research project at Lund University into a startup, he didn’t know how things would unfold, but the goal was clear – to create a car of the future. There was neither funding nor team in the beginning but ambition and openness helped to eventually attract both.

As a company Uniti began its existence in 2016. The first team members as well as many more to follow joined the startup on volunteer basis driven by passion for sustainability and interest to create a world class product. According to Lewis, university campuses are filled with untapped potential so it’s much easier to discover and attract talents there.

“Many young people are very gifted, but their motivations for joining a company are changing. Once it was all about the big name companies, now it is about freedom, achieving something great and getting credit for your work. Here we have exactly that.”

From chaos to clarity

Uniti’s founder and CEO does have a unique approach to building a company. He didn’t start with a clear textbook plan how to organize things. Instead there was a chaos. But through this chaos eventually emerged a functioning structure.

When it comes to the company culture its initial philosophy was preserved – Uniti is a place for self-motivated and driven people who will work independently to contribute to the common goal. And that’s probably one of the reason how this startup managed to grow into a team of 60+ people in just a year and a bit. The extended team Uniti is probably even bigger and includes thesis students as well as freelancers all over the world.

Location matters

Starting a company is not an easy task to begin with, but building something as complex as a car and challenging a billion dollar industry is a whole different level. And it was not an accident that Lewis chose Lund to carry out his project.

“Before we started I’ve looked at a lot of locations all over the world – in the US, Europe and even within Sweden. But we have chosen to be in Lund. Here in Skåne there’s a great support system which we’ve benefited from a great deal.”

Among the many organizations that have been very helpful so far are Region Skåne, Malmostad, Almi to name a few. And there’s of course an aspect of Swedish culture, where people are open and helpful and work a great deal with environmental questions. So in the end it was a match.

Crowdfunding path

As any startup Uniti had to figure the funding question. And given that openness and transparency are some of the company’s fundamental values, crowdfunding seemed like an obvious choice.

Uniti’s crowdfunding campaign turned out to be an undeniable success. Through emission of shares Uniti raised over 1,2 million euro in funding which has also become one of the largest crowdfunding rounds in the Nordics. In total there was over 570 investors from all over the world. The recipe is simple: be authentic, be honest, don’t be afraid to be different.

Apart from finance the campaign has also shown the potential of the project. If so many people from all over the world have shown interest in Uniti, the team must be on the right path. The next step is a functioning prototype. After that will come production. And according to Lewis the plan so far is to set it up in Malmo, which will require further funding.

It looks like upcoming years will be eventful not only for the Team Uniti but for the entire region.

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Uniti started as an open innovation research project at Lund University and has grown to a workforce exceeding 20 people. The idea is simple; cars of today are oversized and overpowered for urban transportation, while also causing several problems for the environment and for our health. By building a futuristic car based on electric means alone, city mobility can be achieved in both a sustainable and efficient way; enough said!

Team Unity is determined to realize their dream of building a fully electric city car for the next generation and has launched a crowdfunding campaign a couple of weeks ago to get the necessary financing.

The goal with the financing round is to bring in 500,000 € for a 5,10% ownership of the company, giving Uniti a post-money value of 9,800,000 €. The share price is set to 10€ and the minimum investment is 500€. Company as well as individual investments are welcomed.

So far, the interest has been very high. As of October 16th, 370 investors have reserved stocks, making the campaign oversubscribed with 52%, pretty impressive! And there is still over 30 more days left until the end of campaign.

“With your help, we can finish building our prototype by late 2017, which will set us up for the funding we will need to progress to the production- and distribution phase” – CEO Lewis Horne.

The campaign will close its round November 19, 2016. Is it possible that the campaign will be oversubscribed two times and reach a whopping 1 million € in funding?

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“It should feel like driving a spaceship, the founder of Uniti, Lewis Horn, says, in an interview with 8till5.se

And the electric car they’re building is not far from it. Unity has a steering wheel that is more like a joystick, an entirely electronic steering system, and a recognition function, that would allow the car to open the door before the owner even reaches it, which means that the Lund-based company is on its way to really challenge the traditional auto-market.

The company, which was just registered this very year, is trying to build an electric car that will divert from the traditional market, and create a new nisch. Unity is supposed to be released in the spring of 2017. It will have a max speed of 90 km an hour, with a reach of 15 Swedish miles (150 km).

Uniti, which currently employs some 30 people on its Lund location, with an additional 30 around the world, aims at making the car environmentally friendly, from production to use, reports 8till5.se, and also prevent to avoid accidents, since this could happen at anytime and having a legal protection for this could be essential for this, which you can get from sites such as https://valientemott.com/practice-areas/car-accident-attorney-las-vegas/.

“More people die of air pollution than automobile accidents, at the same time as we have the technology to prevent this,” – Horn says.

The car, which, judging from the pictures, actually does look like a futuristic space car we have yet only gotten to see in the movies, uses technology that is not patented, and people are invited to help with the development. In case of a vehicular accidents, it’s a difference maker to contact reliable professionals like those who know the florida dui penalties.

“I often get the question what I’d do, if someone were to steal the idea. I think it would be great if someone did just that actually. If there is technology that can eradicate the environmental problems that come from cars, why not encourage people to do so?” – Horn explains.

The estimated price for the car? Around 200 000 SEK (≈ 21500 €).

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