As startups in notable markets double down on growth despite the economy being on the slide, one of Europe’s largest subscription providers of kids’ bikes has not relented in its capacity having taken a bold step in this trajectory. This comes as Bike Club accelerates its effort by acquiring Bicircular, a Barcelona-based bike subscription platform for children in Spain.
Founded in London in 2016, Bike Club as a startup enables parents to subscribe to premium light-weight bikes for their children, and in the future have the subject bike exchanged for larger sizes as their children grow. This allows the subject startup to take the hassle, cost, and time out of selling and replacing the children’s bikes repeatedly: the average child needs six or seven bikes before the age of 16 with their growth.
Per reports, the company has raised about £58 million to date from a number of investors including ‘Circularity Capital’, Europe’s leading circular economy VC firm, to fuel an organic and acquisitive high-growth strategy in the UK and Europe.
It’s also worth noting that Bicircular was Spain’s first platform for children’s bike rentals, which paved the way for Spanish parents to rent rather than buy premium lightweight bikes to match the needs of their immediate children.
In view of this development, notably under the terms of the deal, Bicircular’s subscribers will seamlessly join Bike Club’s community of parents and riders, while becoming customers of the combined company. Based on this, ‘Gabriel Medina’, Founder and CEO of Bicircular have joined Bike Club in a senior leadership role to guide and execute BC’s business development strategy as Country Director for Spain.
‘Gabriel Medina’ Bicircular’s Founder and now Head of Spain at Bike Club commented: “For several years, Bike Club has been the ‘one to watch’ in the family cycling market, creating a new way for parents to finally source bikes for their children on terms that suit their preference for ‘access over ownership’ while never compromising on the quality and selection of bikes on offer.”
Poised to excel in a space understood as Circular Economy businesses that use and reuse materials to reduce waste, Bike Club accelerates in view of sharing with Bicircular on a mission to improve sustainability in the European family cycling market. While according to findings, almost 100 kg of CO2 is emitted every time a new child’s bike is produced, to curb this scourge, Bike Club’s bikes are rented and refurbished up to six times, which ensures utilization of each bike is maximized during its lifetime, while the requirement to manufacture new bikes is significantly reduced.
The CEO of Bike Club ‘James Symes’, added: “In founding Bicircular, Gabriel has been resolute in his ambition to build a business that not only serves a community of parents with a bitter way to source bikes for their kids but one that puts the Circular Economy at its heart. Cycling is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but it is also one of the worst offenders among family leisure pursuits for poor sustainability. At Bike Club, our team and our customers want to combat this. We bring bikes back to life over and over again, costing parents and the planet less in the process and getting more kids cycling from an early age.”
The latest acquisition forms part of Bike Club’s fast-growth strategy in mainland Europe. Prior to this development, Bike Club selected Germany to launch its first non-UK operations in Autumn 2022 on account of the country’s well-established family cycling industry and way of life. The company has also announced based on its press release that in its first six months, Bike Club provided 5,000 bikes to kids across Germany and broke its first-year Germany sales target.
- What’s your view as Bike Club accelerates?
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