Roetz, an Amsterdam-based circular bicycle brand, announced that it has secured €1.8M in growth capital from Veth Investments and entrepreneurs Pim Claassen and Alexander van Citters.
Roetz says it will use the funds to accelerate production to meet the growing demand for e-bikes. Also, the capital will enable the Dutch company to prepare for its first circular e-bike that Roetz will launch this year for production.
Tiemen ter Hoeven, director of Roetz-Bikes, says, “Thanks to this investment, we will be able to meet the rapidly growing demand for our existing products. We will also use the investment to realise the launch of our new e-bike, which we have been working on for the past two years.”
He adds, “This e-bike combines a circular design with a data-driven service concept, which will greatly reduce the total cost of ownership for the entire cycle of use of the bicycle. With this, this unique product responds to the service problems of large fleet owners, but the bicycle is also interesting for a wide group of consumers.”
Roetz: What you need to know
According to the company, around 1M bicycles are discarded and left for waste in the Netherlands, while many parts are still usable. Roetz was founded in 2011, primarily to address this issue – the importance of sustainable and circular bicycles.
Roetz makes bikes by re-working parts and materials that are too good to be thrown away, thereby giving them a second life. The parts are cleaned, repaired, and reassembled to new bikes in the factory situated in Amsterdam-Noord.
Last year, the company launched a campaign, “One Planet One Bike” to create awareness about the careful use of raw materials and preventing waste streams by showing how old bicycles can be reused.
Depending on the type of bicycle, the Dutch company currently achieves 30 per cent to 80 per cent circularity in its bicycle production. The company has achieved 30 per cent circularity with its Roetz-Bikes and 70 per cent by re-working the OV-fiets bike fleet.
Roetz says not all parts of the orphaned bicycles are reused. A few components like the steel lugged bicycle frame and the front fork will be utilised, while other reusable parts flow to workshops where bicycles are repaired.
Materials such as stainless steel, aluminium, rubber, and plastic are sorted so that new streams of pure materials are created, claims the company.
Investors
Veth Investments is a private investment firm offering advice and capital, focusing on the optimisation and long-term sustainable growth of startups, scale-ups, and SMEs.
“In recent years we have been looking for companies with products that make an impact. Roetz has been doing this for several years now by giving new life to bicycles that are at the end of their cycle. But especially the revolutionary design and concept that they will be launching on the market this year convinced us to invest in Roetz,” says Erik Veth, CEO of Veth Investments.
“Roetz has a wonderful social business concept that makes bicycles for the Dutch market circular. This concept appealed to us because it actually tackles problems in the market and our society in a structural way. We are happy to contribute to the further development of Roetz, bringing new unique products and services to the Dutch market and in the future in several European countries. We are counting on our knowledge and expertise to accelerate Roetz,” adds Pim Claassen.
