The bicycle boom is only just beginning. At least that is what a group of international financial investors apparently believes and is investing a total of 128 million dollars, the equivalent of a good 108 million euros, in the Dutch e-bike company Van Moof. One of the donors is Gillian Tans, the former head of the booking portal Booking.com. It is by far the largest funding Van Moof has received to date. Almost a year ago, the company, founded in 2009, received around 34 million euros from a group of British and American donors.
The money should now flow into further global growth, it said. To this end, Van Moof wants to expand its own production and development. In spring 2020, the company launched its first completely self-developed e-bike models. In contrast to the usual practice, components such as gears, brakes, calipers and so on are no longer simply bought in and installed from suppliers, but are designed independently and then produced by contract manufacturers. That should make the company more independent and the e-bikes cheaper. In addition, the Dutch, who originally started purely with online sales of their bikes, expanded the number of their service outlets in major cities worldwide to 50 last year. Now the goal is to expand the company’s own production and sell a total of ten million Van Moof bikes in the next five years, according to co-founder Taco Carlier.
Delivery bottlenecks have slowed growth recently
Driven by the corona pandemic and the climate debate, the sales figures for e-bikes in particular have increased enormously in recent years. So were according to information from the Zweirad-Industrie-Verband (ZIV) In Germany alone, around 1.2 million e-bikes were sold in the first half of 2021 – an increase of a good nine percent. And it could have been even more: Due to delivery bottlenecks, it was not possible to meet the entire demand, reported the association. As early as 2020, sales had shot up by more than 40 percent. According to industry observers, growth is likely to continue in the coming years – not just in Germany: estimates assume that the global market for e-bikes could grow from a good 40 billion dollars to up to 70 billion dollars by 2027.
The industry is only slowed down by supply problems. According to the ZIV, the situation with raw materials, components and parts will remain tense in the medium term. For example, bicycle and car manufacturers are suffering from the global shortage of computer chips. The situation will probably only normalize towards the end of next year. It could therefore be worthwhile for Van Moof to invest in in-house development and production.