The most electric brand of the BMW group has signed a global agreement with the start-up of Marc Simoncini.
by Sophie Fay
Marc Simoncini has the habit of saying that Angell, his brand of high-end connected electric bikes, is his last start-up and that he wants to take his time to find the right economic model. The founder of the Meetic dating site, investor in a multitude of young shoots (Devialet, Winamax, Sensee …), did not really have a choice: COVVI-19 complicated the development of its bike, launched in 2019 , and society is not mystery of its failures.
She recalled the first Angell bikes put on the market to correct the defects of the batteries, before returning them to their owners. It also takes its time for internationalization, unlike Anglo-Saxon start-ups which raise many more funds and set out to conquer several markets at the same time. “We do not have the same facility in France to raise capital,” notes the graying hair entrepreneur.
He makes another bet to give an international boost to his brand. Angell was chosen by the BMW group “to support Mini in its electrical strategy”. This is a global agreement for five years. The French company will design and manufacture mini electric bikes, with the manufacturer’s design teams. The reasoning of the latter is simple: since its customers go to the electric and give up the second car for the benefit of the bicycle, why not sell them one with the mini?
too bad for the purists
On the Angell side, the choice is not easy. “We said to ourselves that we had to get out of the speech and the anti-auto posture that cyclists and cyclists often have,” admits John Mollanger, Managing Director of Angell. Too bad for purists. To win this contract, the young shoot responded to a call for projects from the German manufacturer, very involved in reflections on urban mobility.
The local manufacturing of Angell cycles, assembled by the SEB group in its Is-sur-Tille factory (Côte-d’Or), near Dijon, attracted the BMW group. It is at the heart of Marc Simoncini’s project: “Produce as close as possible to where you sell” and, by the way, “redo France the big country of cycling it was” at a time when the market explode. However, he has not really reached it.
Impossible, he said, to find pedals “made in France”, he buys them in Taiwan. The Angell bikes also have no French brakes. Angell is also engaged in a double strategic turning point: an enlargement of its range of bikes and especially its distribution method, which will no longer be based only on online sales. The brand is built a network of thirty-five resellers in Europe, multi-brands and high-end. And, currently, its leaders go around the investors to raise 25 million euros.