Copenhagen-based startup Donkey Republic have built a bike sharing platform that aims to revolutionize bike sharing. It’s called AirDonkey – a smart lock & kit that turns your spare bicycle into a rental bike – taking the AirBnB and Uber model and implementing it for bicycles. Their aim is to empower bike owners and users, creating availability of bicycles which they believe can change both people and cities.
Here’s how it works – Bike owners receive a kit with smart lock and instruction panel and mount it onto their spare bikes, register and list their bike on AirDonkey and choose daily rental prices for their bikes. They lock their bikes somewhere in public for users to find. Bike renters then can use a smartphone app to find rental bicycles and pay to unlock the bicycles. At the end of the rental, they leave the bike back in an owner-defined drop-off zone and lock it. No need to hand back keys, wait for a bike shop to open, renters don’t have to be back at a specific time and don’t need to mess around with cash.
With their current Kickstarter campaign, they’re aiming to raise 250,000 Danish kroner (about US$3 7000) to ramp up production and spread the project from their Danish trial out to the world. This idea could revolutionize bike sharing and take it to the next level, giving travelers and commuters more convenient, healthy and eco-friendly options for getting around their cities. They also produce their own bicycle called the Donkey bicycle that they will ship as a reward on the Kickstarter. It’s possible for users to purchase several kits/bicycles to run a bike rental micro-enterprise.
If the Kickstarter campaign is funded, the kits and bicycles are expected to be delivered May 2016.
+ Donkey Republic
+ Airdonkey on Kickstarter
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