HumanForest, a provider of sustainable shared e-bikes, has successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign to meet new demand.
The company has raised £1.27m via the support of over 520 investors, of which approximately 30% were trial users.
It follows an initial investment of £1.8m from investors including the founders of Cabify.
Set to launch in London in Spring 2021, the firm then plans to expand into another European city in the first half of 2022.
HumanForest e-bikes are electric, dockless, free for the first 10 minutes of each user’s daily journey.
The company reports that it ran a successful trial during summer 2020 in two London boroughs with 200 e-bikes, resulting in demand outstripping supply.
The new funds will be used to expand the fleet to 1,500 e-bikes and relaunch London-wide in Spring 2021.
HumanForest’s business model is based on three differentiated sources of revenue; users paying for rides, the digital marketing platform and corporate subscriptions.
HumanForest users pay 15p per minute after their free daily 10 minute ride is used up, HumanForest partner companies pay to advertise their brand within the HumanForest digital platform and companies pay to offer their employees further minutes for the HumanForest fleet.
Agustin Guilisasti, CEO and founder, commented: “I would like to offer a warm welcome to HumanForest’s 523 new shareholders. It gives me and the whole team at HumanForest great excitement to know that so many people from all around the world support HumanForest in its mission to reforest the world, one e-bike at a time!”
Caroline Seton, Head of Growth, Said: “Our business model is unique and we believe this is one of the key reasons that we’ve had such a successful crowdfunding campaign. Investors recognise that HumanForest is poised for strong future growth both in terms of revenue and user uptake.
“Our trial was a positive indicator that HumanForest is onto something great – 10k users joined our community and three amazing companies patterned with us; The Financial Times, Rude Health and Whole Foods Market. With these funds, HumanForest is ready to return at scale!”
The firm said it will announce the names of their corporate partners and the new e-bike model in early 2021 ahead of their Spring relaunch.