Kids Bike Subscription Service, the Bike Club, secures £7.5m funding
The Bike Club, the UK’s first monthly kids bike subscription service, has today announced a new £7.5m debt facility funding with investment management firm, Triple Point. The purpose of the facility is to provide growth finance for the Bike Club – primarily for the purchase of new bikes in order to satisfy extraordinary levels of demand.
Founded in 2016 by husband and wife team, James Symes and Alexandra Rico-Lloyd, the Bike Club is playing a major role in getting children cycling. The monthly subscription service makes high quality kids bikes more accessible to parents. The bikes can then be exchanged at any time as their child grows to ensure they always have the perfect-sized bike – eliminating the throw-away culture that was previously commonplace.
The Bike Club, which also offers scooters alongside a wide range of accessories, saw 15,000 new members join last year. Momentum has continued in 2021, with membership doubling compared to last year.
The new debt facility is the start of a long-term partnership between Triple Point and the Bike Club, with both hoping to increase the size of the facility as the business grows. With over 45,000 members currently, the £7.5m will be primarily used to purchase new stock – helping to fulfil demand and grow membership to 150,000 across the UK.
Codex Capital, who are already an investor in the Bike Club, used their unique insight to find the right partner to support one of their leading venture investments.
Commenting on new funding, COO and co-founder of the Bike Club – Alexandra Rico-Lloyd said: ‘The ‘access economy’ has revolutionised the way we travel, eat and consume media, and the Bike Club is now helping to bring it to the bicycle industry. The Covid-19 Pandemic has seen a huge increase in family cycling, so we’re delighted to be working with Triple Point in order to meet growing customer demand and give thousands of families access to high-quality bikes and equipment.’’
Gavin Maitland-Smith, head of structured finance at Triple Point added: ‘’The Bike Club is an extremely innovative business, and one that we’re excited to be supporting. As families look to access high quality cycling equipment through easy to manage payments, more and more people are seeing the value of a subscription based service. With demand for cycling at its highest level in decades, Triple Point are proud to support the Bike Club in getting thousands of families on two wheels.”
