AutoBike just launched out of a brand-name business accelerator, landed five-figures worth of seed funding and is getting ready to start producing the next generation of easy-shifting bicycles from Troy.
The 1-year-old start-up is developing an automatic shifter for bicycles. The new shifter employs a system that constantly monitors the bike and how its rider is peddling, allowing it to automatically shift to the gear for the optimal ride. AutoBike is developing both the shift and a bike to go with it for its first sales.
"Now we have the production bikes integrated with the production shifters," says
Sean Simpson, CEO of
AutoBike. "Now we can take pre-orders and on the bikes which should arrive in early 2013."
AutoBike recently completed the 3-month-intensive business accelerator program at
Betaspring in Rhode Island. Its team of eight people also recently won $10,000 in seed capital at the University of Michigan's Victors Challenge.
The company is using that cash and more like to finish production of its initial product sample bikes. It hopes to sell the bikes with its shifter (both road and mountain bikes) at first and then use that as a way to attract other bicycle manufacturers to include the shifter in their bikes.
"People riding the bikes themselves is what's really going to drive this," Simpson says.
Source: Sean Simpson, CEO of AutoBike
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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