Cowboy, a Belgian e-bicycle startup that mixes design and technology to connect owners to their bikes through an app has raised €10M million funding for expansion to other European markets. The series A round was led by Tiger Global along with Index Ventures and Hardware Club. In April 2018, the company also secured raised €2.4M of seed investment.
Reportedly, the latest funding will be used to scale operations and expand beyond Belgium into Germany, U.K., the Netherlands and France.
Cowboy was founded by Adrien Roose and Karim Slaoui. Both founders previously started restaurant food delivery company ‘Take Eat Easy’. The startup closed shop as it ran out of money and underwent ‘juridical restructuring’. It was never an easy market as Adrien and Karim’s previous startup was competing against established players like London-based Deliveroo, Delivery Hero’s Foodora, and Uber’s UberEATs.
The third founder of Cowboy is Tanguy Goretti, previously CEO of ridesharing app Djump. The app closed shop and joined Chauffeur-Privé, a professional limo-style French car service. So, all three founders are seasoned entrepreneurs.
The company began offering its products in its home market in April 2018 and hit the €1m milestone in just four months. The additional funding will be used to roll out the product more broadly early next year.
“We designed the Cowboy bike to appeal specifically to people who are yet to be convinced that electric bikes are a practical and mainstream mode of transport,” says Adrien Roose, Cowboy’s co-founder and CEO. “We focused our attention on the three main reasons people are reluctant to purchase electric bikes: high cost, poor design and redundant technology – and then we set about to solve for those issues.”
Cowboy also was an award-winner at 2017 EuroBike trade fair, where the bike was cited for its “cool design”, light weight and value for money.
“With superior design, concept and technology, Cowboy has transformed the consumer experience of electric bikes to be super easy, practical and stylish. We look forward to supporting the team as they spread their vision of urban commuting across Europe,” said Lee Fixel, partner, Tiger Global Management.
Further, Cowboy’s e-Bike is priced at €1,790 and the startup directly sells the bicycle to customers via its official website. Alongside design and efficiency, the bike also comes with live dashboard, navigation, GPS tracking and ride stats, the app turns your ride into a more integrated, satisfying experience.
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