Member Article

London bike subscription platform raises £1.7m

London-based bike subscription platform Buzzbike, has raised £1.7m as Londoners seek alternatives to trains, the Tube and busses to mitigate potential COVID-19 infection risk. This latest fundraising round brings Buzzbike’s total funding to £3m.

Buzzbike has raised funds from a variety of sources, including the UK government’s The Future Fund, sports tech accelerator leAD (and its family of shareholders including Horst Bente, the grandson of Adidas founder Adi Dassler and former Le Mans motor racing driver Harold Primat). Previous investors include Cooper (the company behind the iconic Mini Cooper) and Paddy Byng an early investor in Rapha and Chairman of Brompton.

Buzzbike was launched in 2016, to be the easiest option for those who want to start cycling in London. For £29.99 per month (or from £17 per month on the Buzzbike to Work scheme), Buzzbikers receive their own premium bike, complete with protection against theft, on-demand maintenance and huge discounts on essential kit such as a helmet. Members are also incentivised to cycle via the Buzzbike app through data tracking (money saved vs. public transport, calories, carbon offset, miles and hours in the saddle) and prizes, such as free coffee, for going on their first Monday to Friday commute. There are no long-term contracts or commitments and members can cancel at any time.

Speaking about the latest funding round, Tom Hares, CEO & co-founder of Buzzbike reveals:

“COVID is driving seismic shifts in the way people move around cities. As Londoners look forward to a new way of living and working, there’s an opportunity to change our daily lives to be healthier and more sustainable. This is where Buzzbike can help. For key workers in the city cycling has proved a safe way of getting round, and we gave free bikes to NHS staff at the start of the crisis.

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a record-breaking level of interest in our service. Our latest investment round will give us the means to invest into technology, product development, key hires and capability to scale to the demand we’re witnessing”.

The company recently recorded a 440% surge in sales from February to May, peaking after the UK government announced a £2bn package for cycling to relieve pressures on public transport in early May.

Buzzbike was founded in 2016 by Tom Hares, an ex-Apple ad executive and Andy Nunn, a former strategy consultant at KPMG with an ambition to make it as easy as possible for Londoners to get around the city on a bike. Originally founded with an advertising-funded model, the company pivoted to a paid-subscription model in 2019, after customer feedback and positive initial trials. Since then, demand for Buzzbikes has continued to grow rapidly, recording a 300% growth since first launching the subscription service in March 2019.

Buzzbike also partners with companies to offer a low-cost, flexible way to get employees cycling to work. To date, it counts house hold brands such as Spotify among its corporate partners.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Joey Green .