Dutch bike subscription service Swapfiets enters Belgium

“There are more bicycles than residents in The Netherlands and in cities like Amsterdam and The Hague up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike,” wrote BBC. This is the sort of market that gave Swapfiets, a cycle-subscription startup from Delft, NL the confidence to expand services to Leuven, a city east of Brussels, Belgium. Within last four years, Swapfiets has grown from 40 second-hand bikes from Marktplaats (Dutch eBay) to a startup now operating in fourteen cities with about 27,500 bicycles. Its latest move of entering in Leuven will be followed by opening Antwerp service within a month, says Steven Uitentuis, managing director at Swapfiets.  

Founders and the idea behind Swapfiets

Cycles are a new frontier of on-demand transportation. With an iconic blue front tire mounted on all of its bicycles, Swapfiets provides a Swap bike for a fixed amount per month. The idea of a Swapfiets-like service came from discussions co-founders Martijn Obers, Dirk de Bruijn and Richard Burger had while studying at TU in Delft (Delft University of Technology).

Apparently, it was the bike industry’s traditional business model of cycle industry (buy it yourself, maintain it, bring it to a place to fix it when it’s broken) that prompted them to come up with a monthly subscription-based cycle service. They made it easy for anyone to pay a monthly fee in exchange of which the customers can receive a city bike on the doorstep along with the option to replace the cycle within 12 hours if anything breaks.

Action, not ideas

“A lot of people have a lot of ideas. In most cases, it stays just a good idea, but you really have to take action if you believe in it. Don’t do it on your own in your garret. If you have a good idea get in touch with many people to figure out if your idea is worth it and if it has potential. Other people are going to ask critical questions which makes you think about all the aspects. If you think you have an answer for every one of them, then you have to find a minimum viable product,” says Richard Burger, co-founder of Swapfiets in an interview with Aureus.

About Swapfiet’s funding, it yet not clear if the startup has accepted any outside funding as of now. But of course, the founders of Swapfiets are in touch with investors and incubators. It remained part of “YES! Delft” incubator and also won a place in “Holland’s 10 Best Smart Mobility Ideas‘ held by The national railways (NS) and car owners bond ANWB.