With people trying to avoid public transport but not wanting to use cars, it appears another positive from the pandemic was the increased interest in electric bikes and other alternative urban transportation modes. This boosted business for a number of companies, in particular, Brussels-based startup Cowboy that makes e-bikes and an accompanying app to manage various services related to them and has now raised $80 million in a Series C round of funding.

Exor, HCVC and Siam Capital co-led the investment, with Tiger Global, Index Ventures, Eothen, Isomer Opportunities Fund, Future Positive Capital and Triple Point Capital also participating. Having already raised $120 million to date, Cowboy is not disclosing its valuation, nor any sales numbers, but it says that it’s on track to reach 100,000 riders by 2023.

The ‘A-Ha’ Moment

Adrien Roose, the CEO and co-founder of Cowboy, said he was inspired to build the startup in 2016 based on three different experiences. His previous company, food delivery startup Take Eat Easy relied a lot on bike riders for deliveries; these were primarily carried out on conventional push bikes, which meant a certain, accepted lag worked into the startup’s logistics network. Separately, Roose visited his grandfather and saw that he was using an electric bike to get around. As a cyclist himself, Roose viewed e-bikes as just that: practical-but-ugly vehicles for older people who couldn’t drive and didn’t have the strength for conventional bikes. His a-ha moment was when he realised that those e-bikes could have helped his bike delivery network work faster, while also contributing to a better environment in the city overall, compared to the motorbikes or cars that were otherwise used for delivery.

“It took me a while to understand that e-bikes could become popular not just with the elderly,” he said. “Electrifying the bike has made cycling more accessible to everyone.”

What is the Appeal of Cowboy E-Bikes?

Roose and his co-founders Karim Slaoui (Cowboy’s VP of hardware) and Tanguy Goretti (Cowboy’s CTO) set out to design a bike that would appeal to a different kind of consumer, a younger urban dweller. While many others on the market might design the frame but then buy in components from third parties Cowboy designs its bikes from the ground up.

Known for their sleek, brushed-metal lines and weighing only around 19kg, they are relatively light weight comparable to its close rival Van Moof. The 70KM battery life is also appealing positioned discreetly in a long tube which locks into the back of the seat tube.

Cowboy today has two models of its gear-free electric bikes for sale, the C3 and C4 ranging from about €2,000 to €2,500. A step-through version of the C4, made to appeal to those who have used shared e-bike services you find in cities and those of a smaller stature, was launched last year, and the new models feature a mount where you can charge your phone and use it for in-ride navigation and more.

The gear-free bikes are engineered to provide nearly instant acceleration based on the pressure you apply to the pedals when you ride them. Alongside the bikes, Cowboy has developed an app that you use with the bike that provides a range of free bike-related services, such as route planning, bike tracking, diagnostics, and the ability to track your own progress and compare it against other Cowboy riders in your city.

What will the Money go on?

Cowboy have three main goals. Firstly, continuing to develop the tech on the bikes themselves. Cowboy would like to see the price for these bikes to come down over time. He said: “This has been on my mind since the day we started because we want to accelerate the transition to cycling and if you go into thousands of dollars for a bike, it starts to become one of the most expensive purchases a customer might make.” Originally, he said, the aim was to sell the bikes for less than €1,000, although the complexities of designing them from the ground up has meant that that the prices have ratcheted up to be significantly more than that. Now, as the company scales, it has a chance to use that to ease the price down over time.

Secondly, Cowboy plans to add more services and functionality to its app, which is shaping up to be a separate revenue stream for the company with the recent addition of paid services such as insurance, crash recovery and “Cowboy Care,” a bike repair and maintenance service that is currently available in 22 cities. It’s also dabbling in a circular economy model, where Cowboy owners can sell used Cowboy bikes on the startup’s platform.

And lastly, hiring more talent to execute one and two, and to expand across more markets. The company expanded into the U.S. in 2021, and while Europe accounts for the majority of Cowboy’s business today, North America is growing fast, so that will likely be one focus for hiring and business expansion.

“While global efforts in combating climate change have led to increasing support for the decarbonization of urban mobility, the need for more sustainable modes of transportation has never been more apparent, especially among this era of conscious consumers. By marrying best-in-class hardware, software and subscription services to deliver an elevated experience, Cowboy is uniquely positioned to emerge as a leader in making electric bikes not only accessible but also aspirational. We could not be more thrilled to partner with them as they continue to bring their mission to market,” says Sita Chantramonklasri from Siam Capital, in a statement.

The Future

Cowboy quotes estimates that project sales of $50 billion for e-bikes in the next six years, but that will include a wide plethora of brands and business models. Indeed, Cowboy is competing in the market not just against other modes of transport and other e-bike makers: there’s also been a massive profusion of electric bike rental platforms from the likes of Uber and others. This becomes a compelling way for more casual consumers to use e-bikes without making the significant investment into buying one.

Roose says that he sees shared ownership and on-demand players as a boost to Cowboy’s business.

“I’m deeply convinced that bike sharing platforms have greatly helped us educate the market on what an e-bike is, to understand the value it can bring you,” he said. “Also frankly we don’t compete directly. I use my bike but I also rent by the minute for short trips on the go. It’s a very different use case.”