Netzah, it’s good to have you here in this interview. We have been following the PNY journey for some time, and I would say you have a smart and unique product that fits a lot of use cases. Going back to Day 1, when did PNY start? What brought you to this particular use case, where you saw a problem and wanted to solve it? How did that come about?
So, in 2020, when COVID started, I was working for one of the largest plastic manufacturers in the world.
My last position was as a general manager of a corporate startup. So, I got to know a little bit about the entrepreneurial spirit and challenges, though I did it within a corporate set-up. It was very educational and, let’s say, easier than doing a startup on your own, but it gave me a good background.
Back in 2007, when I was a student, I used to do some deliveries on the side. It always struck me that it’s very challenging to carry a lot of weight on a two-wheeler without compromising your safety because of the design of a regular vehicle designed to carry 1-2 people, and the box is just like an additional small box.
So, this is the background, and in 2020, COVID started, and one of the things that happened was the rise of e-commerce, and the fact that now we are ordering not only food but also groceries and electronics, and actually, everything is being delivered to your house. It gave me a sense that maybe there is something that we can help to improve, in terms of logistic solutions for the last mile in areas where there is traffic and congestion. That was actually the beginning of PNY.
The idea that there must be a better way to carry heavy loads on a two-wheeler that can improve the efficiency of the logistics companies and also improve the lives of people living in the city by reducing emissions and the number of vehicles on the roads.
One thing that really encouraged me was to see the rise of the e-cargo bicycles. When we looked at e-cargo bicycles and their advantages compared to regular bicycles, we figured out that maybe there is also room to have a cargo motorbike to have an additional type of vehicle that has its own advantages of a two-wheeler riding on roads and not on pedestrian areas.
How long did it take to design the Ponie?
I started the company at the beginning of 2021, which was soon after I met Roy Grinfeld, an Israeli micromobility designer and engineer based in Shanghai. He is now my partner. So I started working with him, and it took us about three years to develop the frame, which is the heart of the vehicle. The frame enables the carrying capacity while also taking into consideration the fact that we need a large battery to support a full day of delivery, and the distribution of the weight all along the frame.
Actually, in the first three years, we did something like five prototypes, starting from a two-wheeler, then we tried a three-wheeler with two wheels at the front to see if there was an added value, and then we came back to the two-wheeler. We figured out that to have a strong and large frame to accommodate a large cargo, it would be more efficient to make it a two-wheeler, and it would be easier to navigate between cars compared to a three-wheeler.
This is the reason we focused on two-wheeler. During those three years of development, we had design partners in Israel. One of them is DHL Express, which educated us about the challenges they have in the last mile in urban areas, the requirements for the vehicles in terms of how much distance they should do on a single charge, what the carrying capacity needed is, and we can also add a layer of safety. We equipped our Ponie with ABS as standard, which is still not mandatory in the L3 A1e category, but we figured that if someone is working as a delivery rider, they should have a good safety system.
That’s very interesting. You mentioned you put ABS on the Ponie. I read the spec sheet and realised that the motorcycle is rated for 100 kph. Why did you have to aim for a high speed? Why not restrict it to 45 kph? Was there a particular user fit that you were looking at?
We figured out that usually in urban areas the max speed is 45-50 kph, but in some cases, you will need to go a bit higher between neighborhoods. So that’s why we decided to 100 kph for the Ponie. Also, we feel that downgrading the Ponie from 100 kph to 45 kph would be better than starting with 45kph and then taking it to 100kph later.
So you designed it for 100 kph, but you can also offer the 45 kph model. Fair enough. Is it strictly targeted at fleet usage, delivery fleet usage, or are you also looking at retail sales?
Our starting point was grocery delivery because of the heavy weight and the large volume of goods. Since we started, we also figured that maybe professional technicians, like electricians, plumbers, AC repair service people, working in the city, will prefer Ponie to their vans. In Tel Aviv, if you are ordering an electrician, the first question they usually ask is if there is a parking space near your house. So, now we are looking to expand the reach. We have also managed to have a Ponie fitted as an ambulance/first aid vehicle in Israel. So the cargo capacity can be used in other scenarios. We started with groceries and deliveries, and now we are expanding to other categories.
Talking of the cargo capacity, I think I read it somewhere that between the space in the frame and the box at the back, you have 400 litres of cargo space. Is that correct? How is that split?
It is correct. We have that capacity. Under the rider, we have a 115-litre space that can accommodate up to 50-60 kg. At the rear, you can have a 185-litre box with a two-seater variant. But we also designed the seats so that you can remove the passenger seat and have a larger, 280-litre box on your Ponie without impacting its stability.
400 litres of space on a two-wheeler is very significant for any delivery usage. How does the business look today? How are the inquiries like, and any customers that you’re targeting specifically?
We started at the beginning of 2025 and shipped 50 Ponies to Israel. Our business model is B2B. We are selling to distributors. So, we sold it to one of the largest distributors in Israel, which is also distributing Honda motorcycles, Niu scooters, and Volvo cars and trucks. So our business is that we are selling to them, and they are selling it locally. Since 2025, we have the Ponies in Israel, we are selling them to individuals who are using them for delivery.
We are also discussing with the distributor the possibility of renting the Ponies to users. So for the gig economy, it’s more comfortable for them to rent the Ponie for a week or a month. Now we are in the process of expanding to our next market, Europe. We have a distributor in Paris through which we are going to deploy Ponies, starting in March 2026. We are also working with several other distributors in Eastern Europe and in North America to start deploying Ponies in late 2026.
As a young startup with limited resources, we are focusing on one market at a time. So Israel was the first, Paris is the second, and we have plans for the third and the fourth markets.
Where is the manufacturing happening? Are you doing it in Israel, or have you outsourced it somewhere?
Manufacturing is in China. We are working with an assembly factory in China, a factory that has been manufacturing two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicles for the last 25 years.
Is PNY self-funded, or are you planning to raise some capital?
At the moment, we are not raising money. We did a seed round a year and a half ago and raised USD 290,000, and since then, we have used the funds to go from prototype to manufacturing. We are focusing on growing steadily without a lot of capital burn. In recent years, a lot of two-wheeler companies raised significant money with a lot of promises. We are trying not to raise money irrationally, and instead we are focused on growing slowly, not exponentially, but grow step by step to make sure that we can handle the growth, and the product very well. It’s a business for the long term for us.
We like the idea of growing steadily while you focus on the product. But after the Ponie P2, what else do you have in mind? Any other problems that you want to solve?
In terms of product pipelines, the Ponie P2 is our flagship product. At the moment, we are working on additional variants, which will be stronger in terms of battery capacity and motor. This is for the emergency services that require higher speed and a higher range.
In parallel, we are working on additional accessories. We started with grocery delivery and the fiberglass boxes, and now we are adding multiple options of toolboxes, accessories for construction, and electricians, like carts, ladders, and accessories that can help them work better.
In addition to all of that, we are experimenting with several partners to add a layer of smart features like camera, rider safety systems, IoT, and an app for the Ponie. So, we believe that once we have solid hardware that is working properly, it’s time to improve by adding more accessories and smart software to enable better usage by the end user.
We designed the Ponie for companies like DHL, UPS, and FedEx that have a fleet of vehicles. But during the last few months in Israel, we realised that most of the riders are self-employed. So, we thought it would be B2B sales, but now it looks like the business model is very different than what we thought. It gives us some challenges also in terms of how we designed the Ponie to have a regular charging time of eight hours because we assumed that people with the companies will deliver during the day and charge during the night. But then we figured out that gig workers are doing delivery work 10-14 hours a day. So they need a faster charger or larger batteries. It’s nice to see that the industry has evolved, and hopefully, we’ll be able to catch up with the improvements and deliver more Ponies for delivery usage.
