Wheelys Café
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Wheelys Café was a Swedish mobile café franchise founded in 2014/2015 by Maria De La Croix, Per Cromwell and Tomas Mazetti out of Malmö's Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery. Its solar-and-wind-powered bike cafés - 'the world's greenest café' - let anyone open a coffee shop for $3,000-$7,000 instead of $500,000 for a Starbucks franchise, with a $200/month franchise fee. After Y Combinator, Wheelys sold bikes to 250+ franchisees ('Wheelers') in nearly 50 countries, raising a $2.5 million seed round (April 2016) from investors including Paul Buchheit, Jared Friedman and Justin Waldron, plus $350K in equity crowdfunding.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
The Wheelys bike café is developed at Malmö's Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery; the first Indiegogo campaign raises ~$153,000.
- Growth and funding
Wheelys joins Y Combinator, sells bikes to 250+ franchisees in ~50 countries, closes a $2.5M seed round and raises $350K in equity crowdfunding.
- Goes quiet
After 2017, press coverage stops and the company's fate becomes unclear; no public shutdown announcement or failure record was found.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.