B2Bike: bike leasing on the rise
Figures from leasing company Arval last year showed that employers are taking a different look at commuting due to the corona crisis: requests for bicycle leasing were three times higher in mid-2020 than in the same period the year before. So the (company) bicycle seems to be one of the winners after the corona crisis. Good news for a company like B2Bike, which specialises in corporate cycling plans and raised funding through Winwin Loans last year.
Whether the corona pandemic will have a lasting impact on Fleming mobility remains to be seen. In any case, the market for company bicycles has been booming for some time, and corona has apparently accelerated this evolution. Commuters are increasingly starting to see the bicycle as a valid alternative to the car or train. In Flanders, the distance between home and work is less than 20 kilometres for about 70% of workers, and even less than 10km for 50%: distances that are feasible for many workers, especially since the rise of the electric bike. Thanks to the breakthrough of alternative forms of remuneration, it has also become easier for employees to include a bicycle in their remuneration package. This is made particularly easy via B2Bike’s platform, which also incorporates bicycle maintenance and insurance into the cost of leasing or depreciation, and deducts this cost from the employee’s gross salary. B2Bike goes through a complete process with companies if required: tax and social regulations, commuting analysis, individual route advice, leasing, sales, breakdown assistance, storage, insurance…
Mobilotheek
B2Bike, founded in 2013 and created as a spin-off from iBike, a bike shop with eight branches in and around Antwerp, has supplied more than 23,000 bikes since its inception. Last year, it won a contract with the city of Antwerp to provide the so-called Mobilotheek. This is an awareness project around a fleet of 120 bicycles, a water-saving bicycle washing machine and an adapted van. CEO Johan De Mulder: “The bikes will be made available to companies for 3 weeks each time, one of the many measures the city is taking to promote soft mobility.” To finance the project, B2Bike used Winwin loans via the crowdlending platform Look&Fin. Not only did this allow B2Bike to raise a large amount at an interesting interest rate; it was also a way to make the company known to a very large community of investors.
Investors’ community
The platform is an enabler for PMV/z’s financing products. “With a player like Look&Fin, we expect to be able to connect entrepreneurs looking for financing even more smoothly with private investors and with our financing solutions,” said Filip Lacquet, group manager Corporate Finance at PMV. The Winwin Loan was introduced by the Flemish government to enable SME business owners to raise funds easily and on advantageous terms from family, friends or via crowd lending platforms. “The attractiveness of the formula is real, but it is not always easy for a business manager to fill the financing need of his or her SME only through the circle of acquaintances. Through our investor community, we manage to do so,” knows Frédéric Lévy Morelle, CEO of Look&Fin, which considers crowdlending an essential part of the Flemish funding landscape.
