Portuguese Battery Swapping Startup Pollen listed in TIME Best Inventions 2026
Tech Startup News Europe - Portuguese Battery swapping Startup Pollen is listed in the TIME Best Inventions 2026, on October 15th 2026. Pollen, that is an Energy Tech startup headquartered in Lisbon and founded in 2024, is named among the world´s Top 10 Best Inventions of 2026 in the Transportation sector by TIME magazine. Here is what is Portuguese Tech startup Pollen that is named in the TIME magazine list of the Top 10 Best Inventions in the world in the Transportation sector in 2026:
What is Portuguese Tech Startup Pollen?
Portuguese Tech Startup Pollen is listed among the world´s Top 10 Best Inventions of 2026 in the Transportation sector by TIME magazine. Energy Tech startup Pollen provides instant energy for any e-motorcycle, e-moped, and lightweight EVs. While going electric on two wheels hasn’t been easy due higher upfront costs, shorter ranges, long charging times, and incompatible batteries have kept Europe’s 50M+ two-wheelers running on petrol, startup Pollen has invented a solution to one of mobility’s largest electrification gaps: The solution allows users of 2-wheeled electric vehicles to swap empty batteries for a full one within seconds at any Pollen station with no waiting time, no downtime, no carbon emissions.
According to TIME magazine, Portuguese startup Pollen is one of the world´s best inventions since ¨commercial fleets are now speeding toward electrification - especially in Europe, where registrations of electric light commercial vehicles increased by nearly 70% in 2025. But in cities flush with electric buses, delivery vans, and cargo bikes, there’s a notable holdout: motorcycles and mopeds, 90% of which still run on petrol.¨
“That’s not because riders love petrol. It’s because charging an electric motorbike takes hours,” - Rui Bento, co-founder and CEO of Pollen.
Portuguese Startup Pollen is the first universal swappable battery for electric two-wheelers, engineered to work with any make or model. With a subscription, riders can swap depleted batteries for charged ones in seconds at stations across Lisbon, where Pollen launched in March 2026.
Pollen started with a simple conviction: that the future of energy should be shared, universal and accessible to everyone - that a single battery could power different vehicles - and that switching to electric should make people's lives easier, not harder. Turning that conviction into something real took two years of engineering, countless iterations, difficult decisions, and a team that never stopped building, and that kept believing that it would work.
Today, Pollen develops batteries that are powering real people, on real streets, every day. And none of this would have been possible without the riders who trusted a mobility solution before it was proven, and to the partners and investors who supported the Portuguese startup from the very early days. With its new TIME magazine nomination of one of the world´s Best Inventions in 2026, startup Pollen intends to go forward with the same drive to make petrol-free riding effortless for everyone who moves on two wheels.
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