You've heard of e-bike and e-scooter rental start-ups that spread across cities. But today three veterans of the startup world will launch what appears to be a new version of the "electronic revolution" that is sweeping cities in the wake of the global pandemic: subscription e-bikes or, if you like, "EaaS" or 'E- bike-as-a-Service ". The previous founders of Soundcloud and Jimdo will today launch Dance, a new subscription e-bike service, supported by a stellar range of European investors.
The invitation-only program kicks off in Berlin with an all-inclusive service package of an "introductory price" of € 59 per month and its e-bike design. The founders' goal is to emphasize the community aspects of the rental service, just like they did with Soundcloud.
Dance is co-founded by SoundCloud founders Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, together with Jimdo's co-founder, Christian Springub. While Quidenus-Wahlforss and Ljung are known to co-found Soundcloud more than ten years ago as CTO and CEO respectively, Quidenus-Wahlforss takes over as CEO this time, while Ljung will be president. In the meantime, Ljung remains president of Soundcloud.
The main institutional supporter is VC BlueYard Capital, based in Berlin, together with entrepreneurs and investors such as Ilkka Paananen (Founder and CEO Supercell), Jeannette zu Fürstenberg (The Family), Kevin P. Ryan (Founder and CEO, AlleyCorp), Neil Parikh (Founder and CSO Casper), Bjarke Ingels (Founder and CEO BIG Architects) and many others.
Here's how it will work: users will download an app and sign up for the service. A fully assembled e-bike is delivered to a subscriber within 24 hours. If the bike needs maintenance or is stolen, the user notifies Dance via the app and the bike is replaced "immediately". It is more or less. Here is the current bike design:
However, a specially designed Dance e-bike will appear launched, looking closer to this rendering:
Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, co-founder and CEO of DANCE, said: "Dance means having an avant-garde e-bike always and only at your disposal, but without the hassle of buying and owning it ... Dance is the perfect solution for those who are looking for a form of healthy mobility, respectful of the environment, which saves time and joyful ".
"We are convinced that DANCE provides the missing piece of the puzzle at the right time to accelerate a broad and lasting movement from the ownership of the individual car to the daily use of e-bikes," he added.
The startup notes that 45 percent of Germans are interested in owning an e-bike, while the European market is expected to double by 2025, according to some estimates.
This could be a breaking point in the e-bike space. E-bikes are generally considered the fastest and most efficient means of individual urban transport on routes up to 10 kilometers, but the pandemic has placed a new emphasis on their usefulness.
But with an average purchase price of € 2,300, e-bikes can be expensive and are more likely to be stolen, leaving many consumers out of the market.
At the same time, more than 930 kilometers of new cycling infrastructure has been implemented in Europe since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has shifted populations out of "risky" public transport.
Ljung commented: "Save time and save the environment. You train, but you don't sweat. In addition, riding an electric bike is simply joyful. Music was one of the first industries to experience the transition from ownership to subscription. In Soundcloud we helped inaugurate this transformation ... Now we want to transfer this experience to the mobility space and start a movement that will ultimately make our cities more livable. "
Springub added: "We have carefully analyzed the mobility market in recent years and are deeply concerned that, despite the new options available and the clear needs established by climate protection, car ownership continues to be high, along with all the its negative implications such as congestion and pollution. "
