Swapfiets is the world’s first “Bicycle-as-a-Service” company with a circular business model. Swapfiets’ concept is simple: for a fixed monthly fee, Swapfiets members always have a working bicycle at their disposal. Should unexpected problems arise, the bike is repaired within 48 hours or replaced immediately at no additional cost.

Founded in 2014 in the Netherlands, the scale-up has quickly become one of the leading micro-mobility providers in Europe and now has over 270,000 members in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Austria, France and the UK. Swapfiets aims to improve the quality of life in European cities, and the company also aims to have a 100% circular product line and carbon neutral operations by 2025. In October 2022, Swapfiets officially joined the B Corp community to give more emphasis to its mission.

Making an impact on the five pillars of B Corp – governance, environment, employees, customers, and community – is paramount throughout Swapfiets’s organization, operations, and chain. In order to realize a 100% circular product line, innovation is taking place in the field of reuse, repair and recycled materials.
A number of bicycles are already 77-88% circular. In addition to this, various pilots and collaborations are underway to, among other things, reduce waste and make corporate clothing in its stores more sustainable. Richard Burger, co-founder, and Sustainability Director at Swapfiets, said:

“It is in our nature to question the status quo. We firmly believe in the transition from a linear to a circular economy. We smartly use the data from our bicycle repairs to design sustainable products and extend the life cycle of our bicycles. We are proud to join the B Corp community and see the certification as an additional promise and responsibility to our members. He continued: When we started Swapfiets in 2014, we had a disruptive vision towards the market because we look at property differently and want to use scarce raw materials while providing a better service for our members. The ‘stop owning, start using’ message is still at the heart of everything we do and, in light of the climate crisis and resource scarcity, is more topical than ever.”

Swapfiets believes that bikes are the key to a more liveable city. The theme ‘liveable cities’ is practically the beating heart of the company. With participation at Velo-city 2023, Swapfiets joins the conversation about problems and challenges of modern urban mobility. Knowledge sharing and joint discussions are key in promoting cycling as a sustainable mobility solution in modern cities.

To underline their part in this process and to give a deeper insight into the business model of Swapfiets, Richard Burger will be participating in the Velo-city 2023 summit as a main plenary speaker talking about “pedaling from the energy crisis towards thriving and climate neutral economies” on Wednesday 10 May from 09:00 – 10:15.