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MV Agusta has raised an additional €40 million in funding, the Italian firm reports, bringing its total in fundraising to €50 million over the last 12 months, as the company moves past its previous financial troubles.

With the capital increase comes a change in the leadership structure at MV Agusta, with Giovanni Castiglioni continuing as the company’s President, while investor Timur Sardarov takes on the role of the company’s new CEO and Chairman of the Board.

This arrangement should mean that Castiglioni will focus on the day-to-day business of MV Agusta and its product lineup, while  Sardarov will mind the company’s financial future and big-picture strategy, including the company’s new business plan.

If you lookup the word “hustle” in the dictionary, you might see a portrait of the BRD Motorcycles crew. We haven’t heard much from the San Francisco startup in the past year or so, well nothing official at least, but today the BRD crew has a plethora of milestones to announce.

First up is the addition of $1 million in funding, which was lead by the strategic investment firm Third Shore Group (TSG). The added funds will help keep the BRD’s lights on, and help the EV company bring its RedShift electric motorcycle series into production. As a part of the funding agreement, BRD will also receive human resources from TSG, in addition to opening a satellite facility just outside of Detroit, in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Zero Motorcycle continues to raise money despite the wallowing economy, dropping another $2 million into its war chest during a $2.4 million round. The news of this funding comes shortly after we’ve gotten word that the Santa Cruz company plans on building a production facility for its electric motorcycles, and as of yesterday secured distribution in Mexico. While Zero hasn’t said what it plans to do with these newly acquired funds, we imagine the purpose will go something along the lines of the famous Daft Punk song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”.

As we reported last week, there were rumors circulating that Bajaj was poised to take a controlling interest in KTM, which could see the Indian manufacturer owning up to 90% of the Austrian company. After the circulation of these rumors KTM released a statement (posted after the jump) that touched on some of the issues brought about by the weekend’s news coverage, namely the future ownership structure of the company.

Some publications have taken this release as a denial of the acquisition rumors (which the release at no point actually says), but like many press releases what is said is often less important that what isn’t said. Sensational headlines aside, KTM’s response only suggests that CROSS Industries AG will remain the majority shareholder in KTM, and in no way denied rumors that Bajaj would be increasing its stake in the Austrian company. While CROSS and KTM’s current leadership seem set to remain intact at KTM (what was actually stated in the release), our sources continue to point to Bajaj increasing its stake in KTM, while the company’s glaring omission to address that part of the industry rumors seems to confirm that initial suspicion.

With KTM’s shareholder general assembly only two weeks away, we won’t have long to wait to see how the over $40 million of additional stock gets spread out over current and potential investors. Press release after the jump, for you to make the call yourselves on what was said.

Chongqing Zongshen Power Machinery Co. announced today that it has signed a memo of cooperation with Mission Motors, which could see the Chinese company link up with the San Francisco firm to develop electric drive systems for the emerging market and in other markets throughout the world.

In the memo, Zongshen outlines its intent to become a major shareholder in Mission Motors, and to also inject capital into the small startup after it presents a three year plan to the Chinese company. For Mission Motors the move would be valuable strategic partnership to gain a foothold in China, which already has a booming two-wheeled market and need for reduced CO2 emissions.