HOVE, England (BRAIN) — The company that offers the Bike Rental Manager software, used in more than 350 bike shops globally, is planning a new app that will allow consumers to find and book rental bikes online across all rental operations that use the software. The company has launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise £250,000 (about $331,000) to bring the app to life.
BRM is raising the funds on CrowdCube, which unlike Kickstarter for example, provides supporters with equity in the company.
While Bike Rental Manager helps retail rental operations manage bookings and fleets, the company said its proposed new app would add a consumer-facing user search capability that would put the combined rental fleets of all its participating shops at their fingertips.
"With our proven expertise we think that now is the right time to expand the access of our platform to bike renters so that the rental fleets of all our bike stores are available from a single application. No more having to find a store online before making a booking by phone, email or perhaps online. Bikes will be booked from any of our bike stores using our app. We believe this will be of great interest to our stores and renters alike," the company said.
The app also could potentially provide bike stores with the ability to sell used rental stock and give users access to tours, activities, and events.
Based in the U.K, Bike.Rent currently works with rental operations in 18 countries and facilitated more than 200,000 rental bookings last year.
With 29 days left in the campaign, Bike.Rent has already met 99% of its campaign goal. More information on the crowdfunding campaign at crowdcube.com. More information on Bike.Rent at bikerentalmanager.com.