Cowboy e-bike firm seeks new investors

Brussels-based e-bike manufacturer Cowboy is looking for new investors ahead of its next round of financing, anticipated by the end of the year.

Co-founder Adrien Roose said the company should turn a profit in 2025 if this latest fundraising round is successful.

“Based on the current outlook, management expects that additional financing could prove necessary by the end of 2024, for next year's working capital, and to ensure that the company is on track for sustainable profitability,” Cowboy said in its annual report.

“Ahead of initial discussions with credit institutions and other potential investors, management is confident that funding will be available for Cowboy's future growth ambitions.”

The annual financial report noted that equity further deteriorated from -€8.4 million in 2022 to -€22.4 million at the end of 2023, despite a capital increase of €7.8 million.

While Cowboy saw its revenue decline for the first time in 2023, from €41 million in 2022 to €33.7 million, the report points out that the 2022 figure was exceptionally high because it was only then that deliveries of pre-orders from late 2021 started. The company experienced delays in fulfilling orders due to the pandemic.

Other factors noted in the report include that the range of models was adjusted in 2023, with sales of the Cowboy C3 stopping and the Cowboy Cruiser launching. Cowboy also started focusing strategically on its key markets in Europe and on raising margins and profitability, rather than volume.

The moving away from a strategy of only selling bikes online and servicing itself resulted in its net loss being limited to -€21.7 million in 2023, down from -€32.1 million in 2022. The gross profit margin increased from 10.3% in 2022 to 17.9% in 2023.

Roose told De Tijd that those figures are already “outdated” by now.

“This year, we’re on our way to a gross profit margin of 40%,” Roose said.

“Since the second half of this year, we’ve been delivering bikes at those profit margins, which also allows me to say that we will break even in the last six months of this year. Next year, the gross profit margin will rise to around 50% and we will effectively be in the black.”