Crowdcube has seen many promising projects for investors, but online marketplace Ridewithlocal shows particular potential.
Founded in London in 2015, Ridewithlocal is an online marketplace for action sports that connects people directly to over 700 verified instructors globally in activities such as skiing and surfing.
“69% of adventure travellers research and book their trips online, but our research suggests individual instructors seldom have an optimised web presence. Many still rely on telephone calls and cash payments, Our platform closes this gap by allowing clients to easily find and purchase unique action sport experiences at all skill levels. Instructors can acquire new customers cheaply, accept online payments and benefit from our excellent digital marketing service”
Compared to Airbnb, Ridewithlocal charge instructors 13% commission on the total booking value. For financial projections for 2017, the website has assumed an average price of £40.
“Ridewithlocal is all about connecting riders and locals” says RWL CEO and founder Greg Menshikh.
“Every rider knows the best trips and runs are about local knowledge. And every local guide knows that more clued-up riders mean they can grow their business while helping to protect the local areas they love so much. By cutting out unnecessary middlemen, Ridewithlocal empowers the core action sports community and our CrowdCube campaign means ordinary riders can now help us take that mission to the next level.”
SP acquisition plan is based on regional seasons and the site estimate 10,000 SPs by the end of 2017; an average monthly increase of 20%. Adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, they project a revenue of £407,084 in 2017.
Interested? If you choose to invest, your funds with be used for SP acquisition by hiring local ambassadors who will contact the SPs directly to sign them up. This will account for 40% of the budget, with a further 30% being dedicated to customers acquisition through digital marketing and 15% for platform development and enhancements.
The Ridewithlocal team aren’t the only ones convinced, with Diego Naranjo, a surf school owner in Costa Rica saying: “The exposure that my company gets while being listed at Ridewithlocal is a big opportunity to me to grow faster and also is a big opportunity to access a lot more clients in one place.
“You can find buyers, you can do marketing and potential clients can access different tools of payment, making it so easy for them to connect with many action sport services in one place.”
For more information, check out the page here.