A Letter from Aptera Co-Founders Chris Anthony & Steve Fambro
In the last decade, a new and innovative funding avenue has emerged for groundbreaking ideas: crowdfunding. Aptera has chosen to utilize this fundraising method to bring our innovative solar electric vehicle to life. Unlike traditional fundraising approaches, where large venture capital firms and investment banks hold control over company decisions and mission, crowdfunding empowers the world to choose which visionary projects come to market.
What Aptera Did Differently
At Aptera, we launched our crowdfunding campaign to gauge interest in our idea, and to fund development of the first true solar electric vehicle that doesn’t require charging for most daily use. We never expected it to become one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in history. Fast forward to today, we now have over 17,000 investors who have contributed over $100 million dollars, with a collective belief in the mission.
We feel fortunate that those investors placed their trust in us to build this future together. The funds raised from our crowdfunding efforts have allowed us to build a team of highly skilled engineers, industry leaders, and strategic partners who are taking the vision of solar mobility from concept to reality. Industry leaders who choose to work with us such as CPC Group, Munro and Associates, and CTNS are all proof of this collective vision coming to life. The Aptera team is ordering parts and commissioning tooling to build our production-intent vehicles, marking a significant step on our path to customer deliveries, which we plan to begin in 2025.
Transparency is Important
Since our inception, we’ve made communication and transparency a core company belief. We decided early on that by building a company for the people, by the people, we must tell everything we can about the progress being made to make the collective vision a reality. To do this, we create monthly updates on our progress along with frequent social media posts, blogs, and investor webinars for even more detailed discussions on our latest plans. Like any company, we withhold information that is not able to be shared due to factors such as NDAs or complicated supplier relationships. Even though we can’t always share every detail going on at the company, we choose to be as open as possible with our community and make ourselves available to answer questions whenever possible.
We feel humbled to have such an engaged and excited community whose support and passion fuels us to never give up, and ultimately create a future of solar mobility that powers our planet and transports our people. Some of our community members have chosen to make content about Aptera, interviewing our CEOs, engineers, and marketing professionals to get valuable insights on our path to production. Channels such as Tailosive EV, Drive the Lighting, and Aptera Owners Club are proof of our commitment to the Aptera community.
Ideas Should Not Be Confined
We believe that transformative ideas should not be constrained by risk-averse corporate or venture capital firms. As we’ve seen in the marketplace, simply having significant financial backing from a big venture capitalist does not guarantee long-term success. We feel validated that over 47,000 people have chosen to reserve an Aptera and that our crowdfunded investors support our roadmap for the future. Ideas backed by the people, for the people, have the potential to thrive, built upon an engaged community invested in their success. This is the future Aptera envisions—a future that embraces inspiration and promises a better tomorrow for all.
We plan to continue our open dialogue with the community. We do not take our responsibility to the crowd of dedicated supporters lightly. Aptera remains committed to honesty, transparency, and most importantly; to delivering on the promise of solar mobility.
Chris Anthony & Steve Fambro