usiness is booming at Ampler Bikes. The Estonian company has just raised a total of 7.4 million euros in a capital round. With this, the manufacturer wants to use its currently positive economic development to grow further.
New markets, new employees
There are many ideas on how to use the investment. Ampler plans to double the number of its three showrooms to six by the end of 2022. This will be accompanied by the expansion of the company’s presence into new markets. According to the company, the targets selected for this are Switzerland and the Netherlands. The two countries are to complement Germany as new core markets. In this context, core market means that in addition to the showrooms, service centres will also be established. This in turn requires new employees.
In a press release, Ampler also announces the construction of a new climate-neutral production facility. This is to be opened by 2023. The manufacturer could assemble and ship at least 100,000 ebikes per year there. The news does not say whether the hall will be built at the current production site in Tallinn.
However, Ampler will presumably want to locate the majority of its value chain in Europe in the future as well. This is suggested by a statement from Ardo Kaurit, CEO and co-founder of Ampler Bikes: “All Ampler ebikes are hand assembled in our own factory, as we believe that self-owned assembly will continue to be an important competitive advantage in order to offer the best urban commuting experience with user friendly, reliable and sustainably built light electric bikes.ā
With the Stout, the Stella and the Curt, the Ampler range currently includes three models. The manufacturer has specialised in lightweight ebikes suitable for everyday use in an urban environment.
Founder helps founder
Ampler seems to have been able to acquire the funds for the aforementioned investments almost exclusively from domestic companies. Investors include Taavet+Sten, Metaplanet, Ambient Sound Investments and Ragnar Sass. All of the backers are certainly hoping for a good deal. Some of them, however, also seem to be men of conviction – in the best sense of the word.
This is shown by the example of Ragner Sass. The internationally successful entrepreneur is himself a co-founder of Pipedrive, Salto Network and Lift99. He passes on his own experience from developing a start-up into a globally acting company to other start-ups as an angel investor. āI joined the Ampler round because they are boosting the most climate-friendly transportation mode – bicycles. And as an active user of Ampler e-bikes – I know that their products are truly the best in the world – both by the quality and service. I am sure the company has all it needs to become another unicorn from Estonia.”
For all those who have as little contact with stock market vocabulary in everyday life as I do, here’s an explanation: the Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon defines a unicorn as a start-up “with a market valuation of more than one billion US dollars before going public or an exit, i.e. a planned exit of investors from an investment”. It seems that Ragnar Sass has a lot of confidence in Ampler.
Background on Ampler Bikes
On its website, the manufacturer states that it currently employs 130 people. The direct seller has showrooms in Tallinn, Berlin and Cologne. Despite already having an assembly hall in Tallinn, it too was affected by the corona-related economic bottlenecks in the global bicycle industry. The usual delivery times of two to four weeks for Ampler became two to four months in the meantime in 2021.
Pictures: Ampler Bikes OĆ