Amsterdam-based BAQME, a shared electric cargo bikes startup, announced that it has raised €1.3M in a Seed round through crowdfunding.
The company also announced that it has acquired a new lease facility for purchasing e-cargo bikes.
High Rise Ventures and a number of angel investors supported the equity crowdfunding round, with a sizable contribution coming from BAQME riders.
The campaign was completed on Crowdcube. The lease facility has been provided by Terberg Business Mobility as BAQME continues its expansion strategy.
This campaign comes after BAQME’s debt crowdfunding effort, which set records by reaching the maximum of €400K in just 35 minutes after going online.
Investors from over 20+ countries eagerly jumped at the chance to buy BAQME shares. That campaign was completed on Oneplanetcrowd.
BAQME says it will use the funds to expand its rider base and launch its e-cargo bike subscription service.
BAQME was founded during the Covid-19 pandemic in August 2020, by Souren Arakelian and Sven Velthuis.
Berenice van Gessel later joined as a co-founder and investor.
Through its app, users can find and use an electric shared cargo bike at any time.
The company started in Rotterdam and expanded to The Hague and Ghent, and will shortly include Eindhoven.
The e-cargo bikes can be used to transport groceries, luggage, or personal belongings, and they also have two seat belts for two little children. They are also widely used by students or young professionals in place of scooters.
Additionally, businesses are willing to adopt the e-cargo bike as a service offered by BAQME.
Since its inception in 2021, the company claims to have facilitated more than 60,000 journeys with just under 30,000 app downloads and currently has 400 moving electric cargo bikes in the Netherlands and Belgium.
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