Helsinki-Based Vapaus secures €10M to expand in employee benefit bikes
Vapaus, the Finnish employee bike benefit company, has secured €10 million in a Series A funding round. This equity investment will drive the company's international expansion, enhance software development, automate its platform, and scale its innovative PreCycled concept for the second-hand bike market.
In just two years, Vapaus has achieved sixfold growth, emerging as one of Finland’s fastest-growing companies. The company also won gold in the European Startup Prize for Mobility 2023.
Leading the funding round is Shift4Good, with additional backing from Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), the European Investment Bank’s co-investment facility EGF, and SuperHero Capital.
“Sustainable mobility is at the heart of Vapaus. Cycling is an important part of future mobility and with electrification the role of bicycle is growing and diversifying globally. Our offering combines mobility, digital solutions and welfare development in an interesting way. We are happy to have a combination of international and Finnish investors on board to support our growth,” says Tero Era, CEO of Vapaus.
“Earlier this year we announced a 15 million loan arrangement which can be complemented by further optional extensions in the coming years. The equity-based financing announced today can potentially unlock a total of €50 million funding for Vapaus,” continues Era.
Yann Marteil, the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of the lead investor Shift4Good, based in Paris and Singapore, emphasises the importance of cycling as a key solution for cleaner mobility and the significance of companies offering it as an employee benefit. He further highlights the ever-growing business potential in Europe and globally.
“We are excited to confirm Shift4Good’s investment in Vapaus and look forward to supporting the growth of the company in the coming years. The quality of the team, the clear vision on impact and sustainability, and the ambition in terms of development were the main signals for Shift4Good to decide to financially accompany and support the company”, Yann Marteil concludes.
“Vapaus has demonstrated strong expertise in customer-driven operations, revenue growth and in developing a competitive and scalable service concept. We are pleased to support clean transition and employee cycling together with Vapaus,” says Heli Kerminen, Director on Tesi’s Venture Capital team.
