21. RideTo

Founder: James Beddows
Founded: 2017
Website: rideto.com

RideTo has zoomed up the list of this year’s Startups 100, having previously ranked at number 97 in our 2018 listings, and 69 last year. It’s a rapidly-growing marketplace for the motorcycle industry that aims to make it safer and easier to get on two wheels by providing new riders with training, advice, guides, gear, bikes and insurance.

According to founder James Beddows, “RideTo was started after I decided to swap my daily London underground commute for the freedom and bliss of powered two wheels. However the whole process of getting road legal; finding the right training, gear, bike and insurance was time consuming and frustrating.”

RideTo’s online platform that allows customers to get started with a local instructor – a model that’s scaled up rapidly in just a few short years. At launch in 2017, the brand partnered with just a single training school and a few hundred customers. As of today, it has over 140 training school partners, and provides motorcycle training to over 20,000 new riders per year.

RideTo has over 140 training school partners, and provides motorcycle training to over 20,000 new riders per year.

Needless to say, the pandemic and its various lockdowns have seen a boom in the number of delivery motorbikes on the road, and RideTo has pivoted around this trend admirably. It has a specialist service for the delivery rider sector, working with delivery companies including Just Eat, Deliveroo, Weezy and Pizza Hut to help recruit and train their riders across the UK.

It’s not just would-be motorcyclists that RideTo aims to help, however. The business is now also a leading provider of software to the motorcycle training industry. Its diary and booking system helps motorcycle instructors to spend less time on office admin and more time doing what they love – teaching people to ride.

When RideTo launched it estimated that only 13% of motorcycle schools allowed you to book a course online. By comparison, its platform lets you book in just three clicks.

When RideTo launched it estimated that only 13% of motorcycle schools allowed you to book a course online. By comparison, its platform lets you book in just three clicks. The benefits for instructors and schools are considerable – a consistent flow of new learners to train, a reduction in the admin of their business and free software to automate and improve how they manage their business.

RideTo has set itself up for yet more impressive growth in the future. It currently trains more than 2,500 customers a month across 40 cities and towns around the UK, and the business is growing at 200% per year.