Liverpool-based cycling safety app developer K-Safe has received a £150,000 equity-based investment from Manchester’s Saltwater Ventures.
K-Safe is behind the Busby app, which was launched in November last year and monitors a smartphone’s speed and movement in order to detect when a cyclist has fallen from their bike.
They are given 30 seconds to move or respond; fail to do so and their exact location is sent to an emergency contact via what3words. K-Safe was founded in 2015 and is also working on cyclist detection notifications for haulage firms, and a warning system for alerting when a rider is dropped from a group.
The app has already saved the lives of three cyclists, the company says.
K-Safe commercial director James Duffy told Forbes: “We’re not trying to say to cyclists they should only rely on [Busby for safety]. We started with [cyclist detection hardware] four years ago.
“But with those types of products, there’s a high barrier to market entry. People have to pay upfront—what we’re trying to do is lower the barrier to entry by offering a free app.
“With Covid-19 there aren’t any group rides at the moment, but once lockdown is over we’d like to introduce GroupRide—this can set a radius around everyone on a ride and if anybody drops outside of that set radius everyone in the group gets a notification so they can either slow down and group back up, or they can stop and turn back and help.”
