Dance, a Berlin-based e-bike subscription company, announced that it has raised €20M in debt financing by Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital.
Individual investors, including Lavinia Errico of Equinox, Tina Müller of Douglas, Michelle You of Supercritical, Erin & Blixa Bargeld, Einstürzende Neubauten, also joined the round.
They join existing investors like Game of Thrones fame Maisie Williams and music stars will.i.am, and Chance the Rapper.
The funding comes a few days after announcing its entry into two new countries and the launch of electric mopeds. This latest financing brings the company’s total funding raised to €56M.
How will the funding be used?
The funds will enable Dance to accelerate its expansion and growth, as it plans to bring its full-service e-bike and e-moped membership to more cities.
“We are on a mission to make cities around the world more livable by inspiring people to choose more sustainable, healthy, and joyful ways to move,” says Tobias Jordan, chief financial officer at Dance. “By tapping into the various sources of funding available to us, we can efficiently expand our portfolio and geographical reach as we continue to build our full-service mobility membership,” added Jordan.
E-bike subscription service
The German company was founded in 2020 by SoundCloud founders Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, together with the co-founder of Jimdo, Christian Springub.
Dance is an e-bike subscription service, where users pay a monthly fee that covers their bikes and provides an all-inclusive support package.
The subscription includes a bike concierge, maintenance, and theft replacement insurance, via the company’s own hardware and software which allows for fast repairs through its warehouse and logistics setup.
Through its subscription service, they want to make the e-bike the primary way people move about cities.
“What makes Dance different is that we provide the benefits of owning an e-bike or e-moped without the hassle,” said Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, Dance co-founder and CEO. “Our research shows the majority of Europeans recognize that e-bikes and e-mopeds can replace a car commute and can benefit the environment; a flexible, full-service option like Dance can compel more people to try more sustainable travel,” Quidenus-Wahlforss added.
Dance is currently live in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich), with Vienna and Paris launching in spring 2022. Earlier this month, Dance also unveiled two new vehicles to its lineup.
Both models are powered by the Dance app, which provides insights such as distance, speed, time in the ride while estimating the CO2 that would have been produced if the member had chosen a car instead.
Dance members in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich) will also be able to choose the Dance Moped. It is a customised model of a vehicle manufactured by the provider of smart urban mobility solutions, NIU.
The product expansion follows the acquisition of Rollich, a Berlin-based e-moped subscription company.
No matter their vehicle or city, all Dance members will have access to included repairs and maintenance thanks to Dance’s signature Concierge Team, all enabled in the Dance app.
Availability
E-mopeds and expanded service areas will begin rolling out to customers in spring 2022.
The memberships will include convenient repairs that can be scheduled within 24 hours.
Limited-time introductory prices for new customers and new markets are as follows:
- E-bikes start at €49/month for a yearly subscription or €69/month for a flexible subscription
- E-mopeds start at €79/month for a yearly subscription or €99/month for a flexible subscription
Regular pricing will reactivate later in 2022:
- E-bikes start at €59/month for a yearly subscription or €79/month for a flexible subscription
- E-mopeds start at €89/month for a yearly subscription or €119/month for a flexible subscription
Dance for Business
Further, the company also launched the enterprise product – Dance for Business. This model enables companies to offer an e-ride subscription as an employee benefit.
Employers can choose to fully or partially cover monthly memberships at a low cost, with minimal administration and no minimum commitments. Dance says both employers and employees receive tax and cost benefits while encouraging a more fun and active way to commute.
