Atherton Bikes Crowdfunding Campaign Quickly Oversubscribed
Many mountain bike retailers would be aware of the Atherton name. British siblings Dan, Gee and Rachael Atherton have won a swag of World Cup and World Championships over the years, mainly in downhill in fact 49 and eight respectively.
Thanks to their success combined with media savvy, they have over two million social media followers and a total of over 45 million viewers in 2019.
Last year they launched their own brand, Atherton Bikes. Their bikes are UK made by joining carbon tubes with additive manufactured lugs (3D printing in titanium). This system allows them to custom make each bike for its rider, reducing stock holdings and lead times.
So far, they’ve focused upon their core expertise, high-cost high performance mountain bikes. They’ve had orders from customers in over 30 countries.
They plan to expand into kids bikes and ebikes in future.
In early November Atherton Bikes launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £600,000 (A$1,086,000). According their campaign video and supporting information, the capital is to be used to invest in new 3D printing machinery and expand their production capacity.
In the first three hours of their one-month campaign Atherton Bikes exceeded their target. At the time of writing (11th November) with 22 days left, they had raised £1,069,002 (A$1,934,890).
You can see more details of their pitch on the Crowdcube fundraising web platform here.