As the global EV and automation landscape evolves, the need for sustainable, cost-effective, and easily scalable technologies is more pressing than ever. At the forefront of this transformation is Conifer, a pioneering deep-tech company redefining electric motion with its rare-earth-free, modular motor systems. Co-founded by Ankit Somani, Conifer is on a mission to simplify powertrains and democratize access to efficient electric solutions across electric mobility, industrial automation, and robotics.
Conifer’s unique value proposition lies in eliminating dependence on rare-earth materials, significantly enhancing efficiency, and offering compact, lightweight solutions—all while reducing environmental impact and improving performance. With over $20 million in seed funding from leading global investors like True Ventures, MaC Ventures, and MFV Partners, the company is now poised to scale production and accelerate adoption across multiple sectors.
In a recent interview, Rashmi interacted with Ankit Somani, Co-founder of Conifer, and discussed how the startup is reshaping the future of EVs and automation through holistic innovation—from in-wheel hub motor technology and controller software integration to a flexible, software-driven manufacturing model. Somani shares insights into why simplifying powertrains is key to mainstream EV adoption and how Conifer’s tech-first approach is solving deep-rooted industry challenges.
1. How Conifer’s modular, magnet-free motors redefine electric mobility and automation?
From a customer standpoint, we help them achieve 3 things:
Remove dependence on Rare-earth Materials (in magnets) without sacrificing any performance metrics. This helps in getting truly fully indigenous parts:
- Increase efficiency and thus range in electric mobility by up to 30%
- Reduce size and weight for industrial automation applications by over 50%
2. Why simplifying electric powertrains is crucial for faster global EV adoption?
We have already captured early adopters of EVs who are willing to lean forward, pay more and take a slightly worse experience for an Electric Product. That has gotten us up to 5%-10% market penetration with largely unprofitable product lines. Short of strict government regulations, to get to 50%-75% penetration, consumers need to see EVs as more affordable, reliable and fun than typical ICE equivalents.
Powertrains can be up 15% – 30% cost of the EV, are responsible for up to 40% of vehicle losses, occupy non trivial space in the vehicle, with less than 3yrs warranties in most cases and sometime real life being much lower. Moreover their supply chain is highly concentrated from a BOM perspective on globally constrained rare-earth materials.
These problems can’t be solved with just a simple trick. It requires broad based innovation and looking at each element – the motor, controller, gearbox, controls software from the grounds up.
We believe that innovations that stick are simple to build, use widely available materials and easy to integrate so that new form factors of EVs can be rapidly created.
3. How Conifer’s technology is democratizing access to sustainable, scalable electric motion across industries?
Our technology gets rid of rare-earth dependence, which is not just a supply chain nightmare, it’s also a process that produces highly toxic waste – there is a reason why only some countries are willing to take on rare-earth processing.
Our Manufacturing process allows an almost no-tool software driven manufacturing line that allows us to make many products on the same line. This allows for better utilization of Machines and tools and thus faster ROI.
Finally, the ability to create multiple SKUs quickly using commonized building parts allows products across multiple industries – for example we use the same commonized parts for EV Motors and Pump motors, and have very little variation in the manufacturing process.
4. How the $20M seed funding will help scale Conifer’s production and accelerate the adoption of their technology?
We have spent the last few years proving out our technology, in the field, with customers. Current funding allows us to invest heavily in manufacturing and get the first production line operational quickly. We have immense demand for our products and our focus currently is to gear up supply to match that.
5. How Conifer’s electric hub motor addresses the key challenges of cost and integration for OEMs and fleet operators?
Our In-wheel powertrain is a drop-in replacement for hub motors, used by over 80% of Electric two wheelers. Electric hub motors are known to have sealing issues, poor life and low drive cycle efficiency. They also use a tremendous amount of rare-earth materials. We help OEMs get a rare-earth free solution, that has high continuous power, torque density and up to 30% increase in range. For fleet operators, this is huge because increase in range is directly related to low downtime and thus higher utilization towards business activities
Another area where there is even less attention in the industry is Controller software. Often times the level of support around customizations to support an OEM’s consumer needs is poor, there aren’t test calibration software that allows for on the fly adjustments and lesser feedback from the field on issues that happen in consumers. Controller is the heart of experience that a consumer gets. We are making it super easy for customers to make changes, have OTS features and a full features test calibration suite. Moreover combining Controller with VCU consolidates electronics and saves both cost and space.
6. How the backing from True Ventures, MaC Ventures, and MFV Partners will help Conifer scale up faster and strengthen its position in the growing electric mobility and robotics markets?
We are working on Deep Tech with a heavy hardware portion. One needs a different temperament and set of scaling skills for success.
It’s important to collaborate with investors who have experience doing just that. Our investors have experience in automotive, robotics, space tech – not only familiar with the kind of challenges we face, but also have incubated an ecosystem of founders who solve these challenges routinely