Cycling safety app achieves six-figure seed funding

An app that sends an alert if a cyclist is involved in an accident has completed a six-figure seed round, backed by Manchester-based Saltwater Ventures.

The financial boost will help the innovative Liverpool-based SME drive the growth of Busby, its incident detection app which uses sensors in a mobile phone to automatically detect a crash or a fall, geolocate the user, and alert their emergency contacts.

Busby inventor K-Safe, based in Liverpool’s Sensor City building, began developing its intelligent road safety mobile app in 2018 and released it via a ‘soft’ launch in November 2019.

The simple-to-use app can predict, prevent, detect and analyse road accidents, and is now active in 24 countries, across six continents.

Marc Shirman, general partner at Saltwater Ventures, said: “Busby is a great way for humans to stay connected in an intelligent future.

“Housing advanced technology in a simple user interface means the application delivers an excellent experience that we can see expanding globally across bike users and other communities.”

Kirk Ryan, Busby co-founder and technical director, added: “I’ve been overwhelmed with the feedback and praise for Busby from within the cycling community.

“This investment will allow us to get Busby out to even more cyclists than ever before and accelerate our ambitious plans for future developments that will also benefit the cycling community.

“We look forward to bringing Busby 2.0 out shortly.”

Busby’s investment comes in the midst of COVID-19, a challenging landscape for businesses and communities alike.

As the number of lone cyclists has increased and key workers are facing disruption to their usual transport routes, Busby is keen to highlight the benefits that using the app brings to de-risking cycling and helping users stay safe on the road.

As such, K-Safe will be offering NHS staff the ability to upgrade to Busby Premium for free, for the next six months.

Busby premium offers more features such as greater partner discounts and the addition of more emergency contacts if they have an incident.

James Duffy, Busby co-founder and commercial director, said: “Busby is made by the community for the community.

“We started developing the technology after our friend and co-founder, Barry, was almost killed in a cycling accident involving a van several years ago.

“We set a goal to build a safety brand defined by something different.

“While what we have created is fun and motivating to look at, we are even more excited about what lies ahead.

“With this investment, in the next six months, you will see innovative new features that will push the boundaries of cycling safety even further.

“We’re inviting cyclists to join us as we build Busby into a brand that genuinely means something to people, 2020 is just the beginning.”

Busby had early support from St John Ambulance and K-Safe immediately partnered with technology leaders, London-based What3Words, to allow an injured user’s location to be pinpointed faster and more accurately than ever before.

If the injured user is still conscious, they will also see the St John Ambulance safety checklist, to ensure they can stay safe while help is on the way.

Busby also rewards cyclists for being safe.

Partners including Limar, Giro, Muc-Off, Craghoppers, QuadLock, Blackmore and Hedkayse, all recognise the safety that Busby brings to users and offer significant discounts off their own products and services for Busby users.

K-Safe credit a large part of their Busby seed funding investment milestone to their beta user feedback and support.

Busby’s beta period started in Autumn 2019, with more than 500 users who provided the feedback and ideas necessary to build a genuinely compelling product.

Now, thousands of users and other forward-thinking companies such as Bikmo, Discount Cycling Network, and cycling clubs across Europe are using Busby to protect their customers, members and employees while they’re out on the roads.

Jonny Oldenshaw, Bikmo’s partnerships manager, said: “It was a no-brainer for me – my family won’t stop nagging me about my safety on the roads … helmet, check, reflectives, check, and I can happily say Busby, check.

“Now they don’t have to worry when I decide to add some more miles on the route and I’m not back in time for tea, as Busby hasn’t gotten in touch.”