Pedal Me app, Uber style ride app

I think the valuation is very high for what is essentially 11 bikes and an app(they had 12 but 1 got stolen), 75k worth of bikes tops and then £1.4mil of idea.

I'd have invested if they would just break even.

I can see why you say that but the valuation is not based on what they have done so far but on the potential, and they are growing very fast. It's not a crazy valuation for something growing so fast.

They are bound to make a loss for a while as they have too few bikes to cover their overheads. If they were profitable already they wouldn't need to raise money so there wouldn't be an opportunity to invest!

True. It does depend on the service demand. I'd rather hope that the demand for cargo bikes increased as the costs and effectiveness of white vans decreased.

Don’t necessarily agree with this though. Passenger jobs might dip but they aren’t the bulk of the work at the moment anyway. I imagine they might get even busier with the logistics side of things.

It's across all jobs but more so across the delivery work. The passenger work they have is a niche market of basically cycling campaigners and activists who don't mind an amount of being exposed to the elements taking part. The delivery work they can depending on item size compete well against the alternatives of small vans or scooters but that goes straight down the pan as soon as goods are damaged by rain, in the best outcome they spend more on boxes/waterproofs/whatever and it's less profitable in winter but they retain customers, in the worst customers have a bad experience of goods getting wet and don't use them again or vary between them and another service. You also have the overall effect winter has of more riders taking sick days, higher staff turnover as riders get fed up with being out in the elements for days on end, more maintenance on the bikes as they are out in the wet, slower deliveries as it's not as easy to ride fast in the wet, these all eat into profits across winter months.

There must be something in that.

They are expecting their monthly cargo bookings to increase month on month, to be 2x September level in January. But if you look at what they did last year, they grew in Oct and Nov, then Dec was back to Sept levels, and Jan grew a bit to Oct level. It then doubled in March and took off as they got more bikes. That might be a more realistic winter pattern than their forecast.

Also we had a really mild, dry winter and spring. If it pissed down for days on end this winter, it might be an issue.

Found out a bit more about it.

They are not so worried about rain / bad weather. They have essentially plastic bags that they use to keep the cargo dry, and they work ok. And they have an advantage in rain vs motor transport as the roads get snarled up.

They are doing quite a lot of work for pubs and restaurants which should build up into December.
They also do a fair bit of takeaway food delivery, which is a growing market.

I think the valuation is a bit high, but I do like it.

Still going to be hard to compete agaisnt the big courier companies which have cargo bikes and cheaper rates.

Unfortunately, the amount of companies signed up for Living Wage still uses courier companies who don't pay it shows people tend to only care about the price.

They also do a fair bit of takeaway food delivery, which is a growing market.

https://pedalme.co.uk/our-service/
But they only do it until 8pm and not on the weekend? Can that even be called a competing service to the likes of uber eats/deliveroo and if it does is that cheapest end of the delivery market where money can be made as an investor with a "premium service"?

I don't think there is any money in food delivery to the end customer long term for them, people just don't order enough food in one go to utilize the bikes so a courier with a bag will win every time. They can pad out the hours with it to keep bikes on the road but that's about it. It's why the competition has already explored and stopped using these.

Still going to be hard to compete agaisnt the big courier companies which have cargo bikes and cheaper rates.

Yes, that's the challenge. For it to work they need to be able to do bikes better enough than the big guys to compensate for the cheaper wages, scale, etc.

But they only do it until 8pm and not on the weekend? Can that even be called a competing service to the likes of uber eats/deliveroo and if it does is that cheapest end of the delivery market where money can be made as an investor with a "premium service"?

I expect they are doing lunches! And maybe corporate catering stuff. It's probably a higher margin end of the market than evening takeaways, etc.

They are not competing against Deliveroo or Uber, they are working for restaurants who are managing their own deliveries. PedalMe is getting paid its cargo rates for doing it so they are making as good a margin on that as on any of their other business.

This, i've done cargo bike regualar corporate catering runs at pretty much every company i've worked, so it is a viable market to look for (obviously mixed in with all the other stuff)

Launch party, next Weds, LMNH

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpYtK4mBnbG/

They reached their initial target of £150k so their fundraising will go ahead (disclosure : I invested a little bit). They're now looking to see how much more they can raise, hoping to get up towards £500k, which would mean them selling a greater %.

You see a fair few Pret bikes around during the day delivering sandwich platters that would probably be too big to fit in a normal bike bag. Plus they're cold so you can do multiple drops.

You can - and they do multi drops with hot and fresh food as well.

For example: Restaurants and kitchens fill a thermal box with food for a whole office. A rough guess is each thermal box can hold 10+ portions, You can comfortably fit 4 thermal boxes on the bike, without using any of the space underneath the seat.

Well...
That Dragon's Den trailer didn't make me feel very good about my investment!

So after reaching the 100k they needed to expand and then another 250k on top they needed to go on dragons den for even more money?

Dragons Den is useful for two things;

1. Exposure of your company and product on national tv for free
   
2. If you agree an investment you then have an experienced and motivated angel investor on board
   
   

The money is a minor by product.

Presumably Dragon's Den was filmed before their crowdfunding? Or was it after?

Way before crowdfunding!

After? Confirmation statement after crowdfunding doesn't have any dragon looking names on it?

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10595064/filing-history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzdYtybWk50

Used pedal me for the first time today to move a desk a couple of miles. Was excellent, would recommend ****

They are out on the rattle for another round.
Not sure I will be going in this time.

One of there bikes skipping the corner and hopping the pavement along my road earlier, bad look for a pro firm...

This time of year it’s also bloody cold taking a lift with them due to windchill and cold air blowing at you. Even with the blanket they give you.