Update
COWBOY
Cowboy is a smart ebike startup, based in europe. Backed by index ventures (Facebook, Skype, Deliveroo, Revolut - I could go on) and Tiger Global. Quite possibly the raise of the quarter, goes live 9am, Tuesday 10th December. Check out their pitch deck here. They will also be doing a live facebook Q&A here tomorrow at 18:30.
This may well be a raise that oversubscribes/finishes in private mode, so be sure to check it out promptly. I may be able to upload the link shortly before it goes live, so please keep an eye out on this thread
I’ve tried to summarise, as concisely as possible, some key points:
Here's why you might invest
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Great product that excels in design and innovation and tackles many cycling pain points (for example, the removable battery is a novel solution to range anxiety). As a result, consumers love it (NPS (potential for organic growth) of 70; Monzo’s NPS is 80 (was once also 70) and Freetrade’s is 60 as a reference)
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The world is positioned well for smart ebikes: batteries and sensors are at an all time low cost, urban congestion is at an all time high, car ownership is plummeting and cities globally are investing heavily in cycling infrastructure. Urban cycling has therefore seen strong growth (see london statistics below):
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Urban congestion and pollution due to car use is a growing problem. Micromobility, specifically cycling, is a solution to this problem. City planners, regulators and commuters are trending in favour of this (e.g. london cycle super highways, ULEV zones, congestion charge, etc):
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*Direct to consumer model cuts out the middle man (distributors) and preserves margins. Warby Parker (eyewear), Casper (mattresses), Dollar Shave Club (Grooming), even Apple are recent example of D2C model success stories, proving the concept. -
Cowboy’s investor/partner at index ventures, Martin Mignot, is bullish on micromobility, and has an impressive track record, having backed the likes of Revolut, Deliveroo and Bird. He discusses his investment in Cowboy here (skip to 20:35).
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Cowboy has strong growth
It should be emphasises that Cowboy are loss making, like most high growth early stage companies, having lost 3m euros last year and 1m euros the year before that. As they are a hardware startup, particular attention must be paid to their manufacturing costs, pricing model, etc
Here's why you might not invest
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Cowboy is a hardware startup, meaning they’re capital intensive (expect heavy dilution ) and carry risks around supply chain, etc. Where freetrade, say, can onboard customers and sell their product for the cost of engineers and server hosting, Cowboy would need to pay for staff, logistics, manufacturing, and so on. Hardware is frightfully hard.
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Their main direct competitor, Vanmoof, has a large first mover advantage. They have 4 bikes in their product portfolio, are present in Asia, USA as well as Europe, and forecasts put their revenues at over 4x that of Cowboy’s. Check out their pitch deck from 2017 here - there’s an elusive 2019 pitch deck from a crowdfund they did this year, will update this post if i obtain it.
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There are several well capitalised companies in the mobility space (Uber, Bolt, etc) that may well target the ebike market. Their is also a case to be made that alternative mobility models (ridehailing, escooters, shared mobility, etc) will eclipse ebikes.
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A fair valuation would be around 8x revenue, given recent valuations/terms of similar hardware startups like Peloton or Vanmoof.
Private live
Small robot company - An agtech startup trying to automate the farming process. invest here.
31dover - Online alcohol retailer, invest here.
Efoldi - a foldable mobility scooter startup, already profitable, is crowdfunding. invest here.
Shoutout to @JBL for bringing this one to all of your attention first!
Other private live campaigns include zazu (the zambian fintech/neobank), Feral horses (art investment/crowdfunding fintech - they once offered banksy’s!) and Oriental to-go restaurant chain Hop Vietnamese
Upcoming
Allplants - Frozen vegan meal delivery company backed by Octopus ventures. Looks like they’ll raise in the new year, so not quite as soon as hoped. Check out their website in the mean time.
farmdrop - the challenger supermarket backed by Atomico, will go live any day now
Fatmap - An adventure holiday bookings platform (Much Better Adventures competitor) backed by Episode 1 Ventures (Betfair, Zoopla, Carwow) and Jaguar Landrover’s InMotion ventures (ByMiles, Lyft, Festicket). pre-register here. Definitely could be interesting.
vegankind - the UK’s largest vegan supermarket, will be crowdfunding in January. Pre-register here.
Grindsmith - A coffee chain based in manchester, will be crowdfunding. pre-register here.
Rumours
Monzo - Monzo will almost certainly crowdfund, having several strong indicators from Crowdcube and Monzo themselves, it’s just a matter of when. Monzo will send out an investor update email later this month that may (or may not) confirm a crowdfund for the coming months. Great to see the lively discussion going on in this thread.
Zego - Insurtech startup looking to offer loans to those with thin credit files (gig economy workers, immigrants, etc). Modest indications they’ll crowdfund, I’ll soon ask them myself if I can attend their networking event tomorrow! See why Balderton capital invested in them here.
Stepladder - fintech backed by Seedcamp, allowing home buyers to save a deposit 45% faster on average. See why Seedcamp invested here.
Thanks to all of you for the lively discussion
News
I’ll be meeting up with Seedrs’ Chief product officer in the new year to try out beta products and talk crowdfunding. If there’s any queries you’d like me to pass on, please holler!