The founder of a Montreal fintech sold for US $ 100 million in Apple in 2020 is embarking on the manufacture of high -end … and recyclable bikes.
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“Ideally, we would like to say to customers: this bike will be the last of all your life, and you can transmit it to your children,” dreams of the founder of Baumier bicycle, Benjamin du Haÿs, during an interview with The newspaper.
The road to the realization of this project is still long, however, while the company is in its infancy.
“Baumier is a bit like a baby, and you don’t ask a baby to run a marathon in two hours, it’s just not possible,” said the endurance entrepreneur, who is also behind the Mobeewave payment application, sold at Apple for 100 M $ US in 2020.
“Today, this state of mind is very rare, and companies are trying to inject millions of dollars quickly to accelerate developments, markets and all that. In recent years, it has led to collapsing and bankruptcies in the cycling industry, “said M. du Haÿs.
Praise of slowness
To avoid this sad fate, Baumier relies on a radically different approach. “We are going to go slowly,” says the founder of the company, who says he wants to draw inspiration from the business journey like Patagonia or even Tesla.
The founder of Vélos Baumier, Benjamin du Haÿs.
Courtesy photo
“Before it is an empire, the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, has long made carabiners in his garden,” illustrates Benjamin du Haÿs.
In the same spirit, Baumier began with modest investments “about two million dollars” and the production of wheels. Four models have just been marketed.
“As local as possible”
The small company of a dozen employees also hopes to make bikes and wheels “as locally possible”, a difficult, almost donquo -hoste, in the current state of industry. Carbon frames are generally manufactured in Asia, as are gear change groups.
“If I made gear change groups today, no one would buy it. We are 80 years late on Shimano, ”illustrates Benjamin du Haÿs. “But in 20 years, will we have the ability to develop our own transmission system?” This is the kind of bet we want to get started. ”
In parallel, Baumier also works on a way of recycling damaged bicycle frames, to reduce the impact of its activities on the environment as possible.
“When a carbon frame is broken, it is thrown in the trash, then buried in the ground. Then it takes hundreds of years before decomposing. It is an environmental disaster, ”says Mr. du Haÿs. “I want to find a way to reuse carbon fibers to avoid that.”
