INVESTMENT
Flit, Cambridge-based makers of lightweight, folding e-bikes, tell Catalyst about their phenomenal Kickstarter success
is a means of raising capital that benefits everyone: customers, product developers and manufacturers. Which crowdfunding platform did you choose and why? We decided to launch on Kickstarter, because it has a big audience and a good reputation. Crowdfunding is new for many people (almost half of our backers have never used crowdfunding before) and buying an e-bike is a serious investment, so it was important to us that the platform we used had a good reputation. On top of this, Kickstarter has a large, active community. It’s great to be able to interact with this community for tips and suggestions. For example, some of the questions we have been asked have been very insightful and have helped us make decisions about add-ons for the project where we received a lot of the same requests. How did you find the experience? We initially targeted £25,000 as this is what we needed to finalise tooling and order parts for the first manufacturing batch. We passed this within four minutes of launching the campaign, which was a great feeling! With two weeks of the campaign to go, we were on £112,500, which gave us all we needed to complete manufacturing and shipping, although higher volumes will make this easier. The experience has been really positive. We have invested a lot of time travelling around the UK, doing hundreds of test rides in places like Silverstone racetrack, where we exhibited at the Fully Charged Live show. This gave us the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people. We even had one backer come from the Netherlands for a day to test ride the e-bike! It turns out he was involved in the early development of the Ultimaker 3D printers – a company we admire – and had lots of stories to tell and suggestions for e-bike modifications. Only through communities like Kickstarter can you meet so many interesting people who
ave Henderson and Alex Murray started Flit while living in Beijing. Dave, an ex-Jaguar Land Rover
30% of people in the city cycling to work. It�s full of talented engineers and has a great start-up ecosystem with lots of other young companies to learn from and swap tips with. We’ve been very happy in Cambridge: we’re never more than a couple of introductions away from a solution to whatever problems we are trying to solve, whether it’s to do with material science, or how to set up a marketing campaign. Why did you choose to go down the crowdfunding route? Reward-based crowdfunding is great for hardware start-ups like Flit, because it allows us to gather together backers for our first manufacturing batch. After spending three years on R&D and a year working with a manufacturer, we are now confident that we are ready to deliver e-bikes to customers. However, manufacturers usually require orders to be made in minimum order quantities. Pre-selling e-bikes through crowdfunding lets us meet these minimum order targets. In return, people who back us through crowdfunding receive a massive discount on their e-bikes. When done right, crowdfunding
engineer and Alex, a management consultant, were both keen cyclists and wanted to work on ways to improve how people get around cities. Inspired by the rapid uptake of e-bikes in China, they believed these machines could be reworked for cities back home. After developing early ideas in Beijing, they moved back to the UK to set up Flit, which focuses on folding e-bikes that are quick and manoeuvrable for urban commutes, but also small and light enough to take on public transport. The FLIT-16 achieves this by being 30% lighter and smaller than a typical folding e-bike. Designed to be electric from the start, it has all of its electronics built into the frame for a clean look and can fold in less than 10 seconds. Built-in lights, the ability to roll it while folded and a custom suspension system take the hassle out of city riding even more. Why did you choose Cambridge to launch the company? Cambridge is the perfect city for Flit: it’s the UK’s cycling capital, with more than
We have been very happy in Cambridge: we're never more than a couple of introductions away from a solution to whatever problems we are trying to solve, whether it's to do with material science, or how to set up a marketing campaign"
ISSUE 03 32
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