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Gschwandtner, businessman Stefan Kalteis and an unidentified third investor together acquire almost six percent of Woom GmbH. However, with the two founders, a majority of 67 percent remains, Marcus Ihlenfeld said.
Ihlenfeld built woom together with Christian Bezdeka. “We want to continue working in the same way,” Ihlenfeld emphasized. Nothing will change for employees and customers. He and his co-founder Bezdeka retain control of the company in addition to the majority. Investor input is a minority stake.
The equity round is related to this year’s delivery issues. Due to the high demand for children’s bikes in Corona spring this year, woom was no longer able to keep up with the demand. The 60 percent growth this year “caught us on the wrong foot,” admitted Ihlenfeld. At the same time, the crown crisis led to component delivery bottlenecks and therefore production delays, as can be seen in the 2019 annual financial statements.
Runtastic founder Florian Gschwandtner
Image: (Weihbold)
Manufacture in Europe
With the partners, bicycle production will return to Europe. Until now woom, like most other bicycle manufacturers, manufactured their bikes in Asia. Instead of Cambodia, woom bikes will come from Poland in the future. In a first step, 80 percent of the wheels for the European market will be produced in Poland. Bikes for the US market initially would continue to come from Cambodia, Ihlenfeld said.
The investors were chosen in a long selection process, they have the same vision, that’s why Ihlenfeld. They must contribute their skills to an advisory council. The Bregal international investor network is designed to drive growth abroad. “We are very happy that it worked out,” Ihlenfeld said. “Now things really get going.” Everything should be formally finished by the end of October.
For woom, the entry of the investment group around Bregal is the first big round of financing. So far woom has been financed through two subordinated loans of 250,000 euros and 650,000 euros. Ihlenfeld did not mention how much money the investors who have now joined are investing in the company.
Bregal is the holding company of the Dutch Brenninkmeyer family. It also owns the textile trading company C&A, founded by Clemens and August Brenninkmeyer. For Bregal, it is not the first investment related to cycling in Austria. At the end of 2018, the Tyrolean company Greenstorm, which operates electric bikes for hotels and businesses, among other things, received a sum of double-digit million from Bregal Milestone to continue growing.
Woom now employs about 100 people in Klosterneuburg. 142,000 children’s bikes left here worldwide in 2019 alone. The two founders and, according to their own account, “dumb bike dads” laid the foundations for one of the most successful start-ups in the bicycle industry. right now in a garage in Vienna. Sales of children’s bikes started in 2013. Woom claims to have made a profit since 2017.
