The French start-up, a pioneer in the construction of delivery tricycles, is stepping up its growth.
VUF Bikes raises significant funds
VUF Bikes has announced a €3 million round of financing with the ambition of becoming the European benchmark for professional cargo bikes to decarbonise last-mile logistics. This new round of financing brings together the following investment funds: iXO Private Equity and Crédit Agricole Aquitaine Expansion and business angels from the Femmes Business Angels and We Like networks, as well as VUF Bikes' historic investors: Julien Chaudeurge (founder of Babyzen), Timothée Malige (founder of CGC Invest) and Jean-Christophe Kugler (former member of Renault's executive committee).
What is a cargo bike?
VUF's electrically-assisted cargo bikes are agile, heavy-duty XXL three-wheelers that are the perfect size for urban use, with a load capacity of up to 150 kg and/or 1.5 m³. These three-wheelers are both light and strong, making them ideal for intensive use by all urban professionals.
The aim of VUF Bikes
These funds will enable the company to :
-Develop and accelerate sales in France and on the European market.
-Increase the workshop's production capacity to assemble 5,000 cargo bikes a year.
-Strengthen its teams by recruiting new talent.
-Invest in marketing to boost brand awareness and visibility.
-Devising a new range of products to continue to meet our customers' needs as effectively as possible.
"This fund-raising is a decisive step in the development of VUF Bikes.
"This fund-raising is a decisive step in the development of VUF Bikes. Faced with rising fuel prices, traffic congestion in urban areas and new climate challenges, urban professionals are looking for solutions. VUF Bikes is changing the game by offering them an innovative product. Using our electric three-wheelers allows them to decarbonise their business while improving their performance. Our VUFs can travel at speeds of up to 25km/h and can use cycle paths and bus lanes, as well as circulating in car-free zones and low-emission zones (ZFE)". says Thomas Chenut, CEO and Founder of VUF Bikes.
Having raised €570,000 in December 2020, VUF Bikes has already enabled its users to avoid more than 265,000 kg of CO₂ emissions. With this new round of funding, the company aims to become the benchmark for 0-carbon emission utility vehicles to disrupt the last-mile market. VUF Bikes is positioning itself as a genuine alternative to commercial vehicles and speeding up the ecological transition for deliveries in urban areas.
Nicolas Olives, Investment Director at iXO Private Equity, comments: "More and more companies are thinking about how they can improve their urban logistics for deliveries and services. Whether it's to reduce their environmental impact or make it easier for them to get to the heart of the city, we believe that the VUF Bikes offer is a relevant and appropriate response for many of them. In addition to the quality of the management team, our involvement with VUF Bikes was motivated by the prospect of being able to support the potential leader in soft mobility for professionals.
What's more, innovation and made in France are an integral part of VUF Bikes' DNA.
The start-up sources its products mainly from French manufacturers such as Abus, Aivee, Effigear, Mach1, Velox, etc. Historically, the company offered its customers three-wheelers, 75% of the value of which was generated in France. This fund-raising was accompanied by the launch of a new partnership with French automotive supplier Valeo. VUF Bikes is now the first three-wheeler manufacturer to equip its bikes with the powerful Cyclee engine, which recently won an Innovation Award. En équipant ses triporteurs d’un moteur français,
VUF Bikes propose maintenant des vélos dont 90% de la valeur est réalisée en France !
Julien Chaudeurge, a historic investor in VUF Bikes and founder of Babyzen, adds:"I'm delighted to be working with the VUF Bikes team again. Thomas and Anthony Chenut have shown great skill over the last two years, and their recent partnerships with the La Poste group and with equipment manufacturer Valeo at CES in Las Vegas show that there is real potential for development both in France and internationally!“
A promising future!
The company is experiencing hypergrowth, with a nine-fold increase in sales between 2020 and 2022. What's more, the start-up has already increased its workforce by 56% by the summer of 2022, and plans to
to recruit 10 new employees in 2023 to meet customer demand and the needs of the European last-mile market.
As a pioneering manufacturer of cargo bikes, VUF Bikes supplies fleets of three-wheelers to the main players in the last-mile market operating for Amazon, such as Urby, Ecolotrans, Tryphaz, Senges and Transcan. The start-up is also proud to equip La Poste with innovative cargo bikes, and the links between the two companies will continue to strengthen in 2023.
With the success of this fund-raising, VUF Bikes now has the opportunity to realise its ambition of becoming the European leader in the professional cargo bike market.