DANCE
, an e-bike subscription service, has closed a €15 million Series A funding round.
The Berlin, Germany-based startup, which launched its pilot program three months ago, plans to expand initially across Europe and in the U.S. further down the road.
DANCE says that purchasing an e-bike and on-demand mobility services are both expensive, while its subscription service provides an alternative especially for consumers seeking more environmentally friendly options.
Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, co-founder and CEO of DANCE, says: “The goal of DANCE is to spark a global movement built on a connected community of passionate e-bike riders, ultimately making cities more bike-friendly and livable.”
The company delivers an assembled e-bike to subscribers and also offers maintenance and theft replacement insurance as part of the subscription.
Subscribers use the DANCE app to control their bike with features including unlocking and GPS location tracking.
The company’s pilot program is via invite-only in Berlin with plans to widen accessibility and add cities next year.
Rainer Markle, general partner at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, says: “The mobility market is seeing a huge shift towards bikes, strongly fueled by the paradigm shift of vehicles going electric. Unfortunately, the majority of e-bikes on the market today have some combination of poor design, high upfront costs and cumbersome maintenance.”
He adds that, after evaluating the mobility market, it sees DANCE as the “most viable future of biking.”