Bristol bike brand Temple Cycles is looking for crowdfunding to grow its business, allowing it to launch a revamped range of bikes, recruit 15 new members of staff and invest in manufacturing bikes from scratch in the UK.
Private investment was opened on Friday (17 February 2017) and Temple Cycles has already met its £150,000 funding target. The owners are still calling for investors to take part of 10% of the company to help them to grow UK bicycle manufacturing.
The investment will be used to develop new products, hire and train new staff, research UK manufacturing and expand Temple Cycles’ facilities. Last time we checked they had raised £155,000 through CrowdCube with a month of the campaign still to run. The minimum investment you can offer is £10.
“We want to grow bicycle production in the UK,” says Temple Cycles owner Matt Mears.
“We want to make beautiful, stylish British bicycles here in Bristol and sell them throughout the world. There was a time when the UK’s bicycle industry was the envy of the world. It’s our dream to bring those days back.”
Matt, 26, started out restoring classic bicycles whilst studying at the University of Bristol. He founded Temple Cycles in 2014 with £5,000 of his own money and in two years has created a range that includes adventure bikes, singlespeed/fixed, all-rounders, hybrids and more.
Temple Cycles says that up until now it has received no outside investment, relying instead on customer service and its range of products for growth.
Temple Cycles is offering investors a variety of rewards ranging from special edition merchandise to one-of-a-kind custom bicycles, depending on the level of investment.
The funding will allow Temple to research new products such as eBikes and high-quality kids bikes, to grow their accessories range and to refine their current range of adult bicycles.
Some of the capital will be committed to researching how best to batch-fabricate frames from scratch in the UK.
Temple Cycles Crowdfunding from Alex Wilson on Vimeo.
Temple Cycles is also hoping investors will bring their own experience and expertise into the business.
You can learn more about Temple Cycles’ Crowdfunding campaign here.
Mat has worked for loads of bike magazines over 20+ years, and been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. He's been road.cc technical editor for eight years, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a past winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer.