Pollen is a Lisbon-based clean-mobility startup founded in 2024 by former Uber Portugal general manager Rui Bento, building a universal battery-swapping network for electric mopeds. In May 2026 it raised €3.2 million in a first funding round led by Nordic backing — Swedish climate-tech VC Pale Blue Dot — alongside Portugal’s Mustard Seed MAZE.
Pollen is a Lisbon clean-mobility company founded in 2024 by Rui Bento, the former general manager of Uber in Portugal. It is building a universal, swappable-battery subscription service for electric mopeds: riders exchange a depleted battery for a fully charged one at 24/7 stations, removing charging downtime for delivery fleets and private users alike. Its first stations are live in Lisbon, with plans to expand across Southern Europe.
The corridor link runs through Pollen’s cap table. In May 2026 the company raised €3.2 million in its first round, led by Pale Blue Dot — a Swedish climate-tech venture fund — together with Portugal’s Mustard Seed MAZE. The deal is a textbook Nordic-to-Portugal capital flow: Nordic climate investors backing a Portuguese founder building Southern-European infrastructure.
Nordic venture capital flowing into Portuguese startups is one of the most important and least-visible currents of the corridor. Pale Blue Dot’s investment in Pollen connects Sweden’s deep climate-tech investor base to Lisbon’s mobility ecosystem, and gives Pollen both capital and a Nordic network as it scales — exactly the kind of two-way relationship NorthSouth HQ tracks.
Pollen closed its €3.2M round in May 2026 and is scaling its Lisbon battery-swap network ahead of a planned Southern-European expansion. Follow corridor venture news on our news feed.
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