Two Luxembourg entrepreneurs from nyuko's 1,2,3 GO programme have developed an electric bicycle designed to safely transport up to two children in the back.
Entitled Bike43, this new product is the creation of Jean-Michel Mertz and Etienne Richelle, who won the 'coup de coeur du jury' prize at the closing ceremony of the 2015 1,2,3 GO programme. They were also picked up by several investors in the Greater Region through the venture capital forum Seed4Start. Bike43 is targeted towards both young couples and families, with a system that allows for the storing of bags, baskets and child seats.
"We really designed for the long-term, without planned obsolescence," explained Jean-Michel Mertz. "All all this in a compact size: it is only 10cm longer than a standard woman's bicycle! And its weight is in the same range as conventional electric bikes."
The Bike43 project was granted a loan from the Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) after approaching the bank with Nicolas Valaize, in charge of nyuko funding. Supported by InnovFin and Mutualité de Cautionnement et d'Aide aux Commerçants (MCAC) of the Chamber of Commerce, the loan was released Tuesday. A patent has been filed.
"The bike season is just beginning, so it's an important time for us," commented Jean-Michel Mertz. "Our goal is to contact the best dealers particularly in Flanders, Germany and the Netherlands and to sell them a first bike, so they can help their cliesnt discover it. It is a very agile and fun bike so we are hoping for a lot of word-of-mouth".
Bike43 is currently at Gent's Design Museum as part of a bicycle exhibition entitled 'Bike to the Future'. The display is due to pass by Milan before continuing on to several other countries.
Photo by nyuko
