97. RideTo

Founders: James Beddows
Founded: January 2017 (Launched June 2017)
Website: www.rideto.com

Business-minded from an early age, James Beddows started a vegetable delivery business at nine years-old and then followed that with a bike sharing company which he started at university and eventually sold.

Now, Beddows has turned his attention from cycle sharing to motorbikes with RideTo: a complete platform for learner motorcyclists that makes it “easier and safer to get onto two wheels”.

The business was created out of Beddows’ own frustrations when learning to ride a motorbike.

Back in 2016, he’d found the search for clear help and advice for learner motorcyclists frustrating.

Getting a motorbike licence involved “transferring hundreds of pounds to a man in a shed in a car park somewhere for his training and hoping that when he turned up someone would be there, and you’d get a safe standard of training to properly prepare you to ride on the roads”.

With only 13% of training schools in the UK giving the option to book motorbike lesson online, it was clear the market was ripe for disruption.

With RideTo, learners can book from a hand-picked selection of top rated schools, with a price match guarantee and discounts for new riders.

And that’s not all: as the business is striving to become the entry point to the motorcycle industry for new riders, RideTo also offers insurance, motorcycle clothing and jobs for delivery drivers.

The start-up is already training 400 customers a month and this approval from the public has been matched by corporate interest. Commercial clients include Deliveroo, Quiqup and Pizza Hut and it has more than 35 partner training schools across London, Manchester, Essex and Bristol.

Growing 45% month-on-month, by the end of 2018 Beddows expects RideTo will be training more than 10,000 riders across the UK so you can expect to see the business accelerate over the coming months.