Soundcloud founders launch e-bike subscription service
The former founders of Soundcloud have launched an e-bike subscription service, backed by European investors.
The service, Dance, is co-founded by Soundcloud founders Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, together with the co-founder of website builder Jimdo, Christian Springub.
Quidenus-Wahlforss and Ljung are known for co-founding Soundcloud as chief technical officer and chief executive respectively. Quidenus-Wahlforss will take the chief executive role at Dane, while Ljung will be chairman. Ljung remains chairman of Soundcloud in the meantime.
The subscription service will start in Berlin, with an all-inclusive package of a €59-a-month ‘introductory price’ and its own design of e-bike, according to Tech Crunch.
The main institutional backer is venture capital firm Blueyard Capital, as well as investors such as Ilkka Paananen, the founder and boss of Supercell.
Users of Dance will download the app and register. Within 24 hours the fully assembled e-bike will be delivered within 24 hours, and if the bike needs maintenance or is stolen, the user alerts Dance and the bike is replaced “immediately”.
Quidenus-Wahlforss, co-founder and chief executive told TechCrunch: “Dance means having a state-of-the-art e-bike always and only available to you, but without the hassle of buying and owning it… Dance is the perfect solution for those who are looking for a healthy, environmentally friendly, time-saving and joyful form of mobility.”
“We are convinced that DANCE provides the missing piece of the puzzle at the right time to accelerate a broad and lasting movement from individual car ownership to daily use of e-bikes,” he added.
Ljung said: “You save time and you save the environment. You exercise, but you don’t sweat. And besides that, riding an e-bike is simply joyful. Music was one of the first industries to experience the shift from ownership to subscription. At Soundcloud we helped usher in this transformation… Now we want to transfer this experience to the mobility space and start a movement that will ultimately make our cities more livable.”