HumanForest, a provider of sustainable and affordable shared e-bikes, has successfully completed its crowdfunding campaign. The company has raised around €1.4 million with support from over 520 investors.
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!”
HumanForest, founded in 2019, is on a mission to provide sustainable micro-mobility to a host of global cities starting with London in Spring 2021 and expanding into another European city in the first half of 2022. Its e-bikes and operations are truly green, offering users a sustainable way to travel whilst limiting air pollution and road congestion.
The company ran a successful trial during summer 2020 in two London boroughs with 200 e-bikes. However, interest in the bikes was so high that with the limited size of the fleet only 30% of the demand was able to be fulfilled. As such, these 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 0.15p 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.
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!’
Approximately 30% of HumanForest’s new investors were also HumanForest users during the trial. Additionally, the shareholders are predominantly made up of the same demographic as those who rode the e-bikes during the trial; 67% are between 18 and 40 years old (75% of HumanForest riders are between the ages of 20 and 35 years old), with slightly more men than women both riding and investing. Interestingly, the new shareholders represent over 25 countries including Vietnam, Peru, Chile, Nigeria, Barbados and Latvia.
HumanForest will be announcing the names of their corporate partners and the new e-bike model in early 2021 ahead of their Spring relaunch.
