Moonbikes story began in the French Alps in a tiny village called Saint-Nicolas-de-Véroce. Nicolas Muron, Moonbikes founder and CEO observed that in the summer, there are countless ways to get around—including cars, bikes, skateboards, e-bikes, motorcycles, pogo sticks, and roller skates. Yet in the winter, mobility solutions were extremely limited—and they often had a large impact on the environment. When the snow fell, transportation primarily revolved around cars and snowmobiles. Inspired by his love for the mountains and deep interest in technology, Nicolas recognized a need for something different.
Nicolas returned to Paris, where he worked as an aeronautical engineer designing advanced drones and other technical projects, and while locked away in windowless rooms, he never stopped thinking about the wintery alpine peaks and endless possibilities. He knew there had to be a better way to explore that winter expanse, and so decided to apply his extensive aerospace design and testing experience to his ideas. Nicolas devoted all of his free time to tinkering with endless designs, testing them to their limits, and allowing his inspiration to guide his technical skill.
Nicolas imagined an ultralight, powerful machine that can travel effortlessly over the snow. It had to be nearly silent, and — because of his lifelong love of nature and the outdoors — needed to have the smallest environmental impact possible. The solution was an electric motor.
Prototype after prototype proved the inevitable: The classic snowmobile design, simply fitted with an electric motor and battery, would never allow Nicolas to build a machine that could climb slopes, shred pow, or have enough range to adventure very far into the winter wilderness, while also being ultralight, powerful, nearly silent, travel effortlessly over the snow, and have the smallest environmental impact possible. Nicolas had to completely reimagine something new.
CHANGING THE GAME OF WINTER EXPLORATION
Nicolas knew that in order to revolutionize winter mobility as he dreamt it, he needed to give it all of his considerable vision and skill. In 2017 he left a promising engineering career and devoted himself full time to the project. Nicolas brought together the brightest minds in design, engineering, and finance and, after many long nights and intense collaboration (and a lot of croziflette, a deliciously frugal French mac n cheese) Nicolas achieved an innovative, high-performance propulsion system and chassis that was ultralight, powerful, nearly silent, travelled effortlessly over the snow, and had the smallest environmental impact possible. In 2018 Moonbikes Motors was born.
In 2020 MoonBikes formed key partnerships that provided funding, deep technical and design expertise, and established its European headquarters in Annecy, French Alps, and the company began accepting customer reservations, and MoonBikes production began.
In 2021, MoonBikes was the pioneer in winter e-mobility across Europe, launched partnerships with 40 winter sport resorts, including major ski resorts (Tignes, Courchevel, Vald'Isere...) , tour operators, and others to build exclusive MoonBikes Parks, who offer MoonBikes rental experiences to thousands of guests.
The year 2021 marked a major
turning point for MoonBikes. The
startup completed a $5M
fundraising campaign with French and American Investors, and signed
a partnership with BOSCH, to assemble
the MoonBikes in the French Alps.
In less than 18 months, MoonBikes went from 0 to $3.5M in sales, from 6 to 40 employees, and from 5 customers to more than 200 in 20+ countries!
