MICROMOBILITY HUMANFOREST
Rebecca Bland sits down with Caroline Seton, co-founder of London-based shared e-bike brand HumanForest, to discuss sustainability and aff ordability
Tell me about the brand, how did it start and what inspired you to launch? HumanForest was founded in November 2019. We completed a three month trial in Islington and Camden in the summer of 2020 to prove the concept before launching officially in London almost a year ago. We’re coming up to our anniversary. The name ‘HumanForest’ sums up our inspiration for this company. In the same way that trees capture CO2 from the atmosphere, our users riding our truly green e-bike avoid emitting CO2. In essence, they become a human forest. We really wanted to use our brand to promote sustainability and show people that just one person can collectively make a difference to the climate crisis. By offering 10 minutes free daily, making this an easy option for people, we bridge the gap between affordability and sustainability. Particularly now as we enter a cost of living crisis, we’re really aware of the fact that being sustainable shouldn’t be a luxury and it’s something
HumanForest co-founder Caroline Seton
that everyone can do if they’re given the tools. We’re one of those tools that we hope will help transform cities, changing peoples’ mindset and behaviour.
When does HumanForest hope to begin turning a profit? We will be earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) positive in the next month. That was always our goal, to be profitable within a year of operation, and we are very close.
Do you find a lot of people are riding more than the free 10 minute daily allowance? People do ride beyond the 10 minutes free daily, but then we also work with partners to give users more free minutes. We also have a loyalty programme so users can earn more free minutes as they pedal. You earn one TreeCoin for every five miles ridden (that’s equivalent to avoiding the amount of CO2 a tree captures in a day).
What are HumanForest’s plans for the future? The future is really exciting for us, we’re planning to launch into Europe over the next couple of years and that’s a big focus. Larger capital cities tie in with our ad model. We’re also continuing to develop our TreeCoin loyalty
42 | November 2022
www.bikebiz.com
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