German ebike subscription company Dance has raised €16.5 million in venture capitalist funding today, as the company’s first-generation ebike and repair service rolls out in Berlin.
According to the company, the latest funding will be used to scale the business, including doubling the team to add more world-class operations, engineering, and sustainability-focused team members.
Dance is also planning to launch in additional markets in Europe through 2022, offering thousands of ebikes that can last through multiple customers and purchase seasons.
“As Paris, Milan, Brussels, and others make significant investments in cycling infrastructure, there is an incredible opportunity to transform the way society commutes at the citizen level,” says Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, Dance’s CEO and co-founder.
The funding round was led by Eurazeo, a leading global investment firm. “By scaling easy-to-use, holistic and sophisticated approaches like Dance, we can incentivize more people to consistently choose cleaner commutes, while sparking change within their own communities,” says Matthieu Bonamy, a Partner at the firm. Dance has recently started rolling out its service in its Berlin hometown and has already delivered hundreds of ebikes to the initial members of its community.
The ebike subscription service was founded by Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, the co-founders of music streaming service SoundCloud and Jimdo co-founder Christian Springub. The company aims to create more liveable cities centred around communities of people, rather than traffic.
