The company carries out the complete process of design, development, and distribution and sale through its website in order to offer the highest quality at the most competitive price

BIBŌO BIKES was born in September 2015 with the aim of promoting the electric bicycle market in the Basque Country. And it has managed, in just over a year, not only to get a foothold in the local sphere but also to make the leap to the international scene.

BIBŌO’s business model is based on offering electric bicycles that respond to the tastes and demands of each customer, who can choose tailored designs and various materials. All this at a competitive price through direct sales ‘on-line’, without intermediaries.

“Many people from abroad are contacting us”, says María Ribate, the head of communication and marketing department of the company. “We had planned to grow progressively and move from the local market to the national market and then to the international one, but the leap has been earlier than expected”.

The beginnings of BIBŌO

Two founding partners, Pretty Sangrona and José Ramón Ribate, created BIBŌO in 2015. After attending the Euro Bike, the largest sector exhibition on the continent, they glimpsed the existence of a market niche in the Basque Country where the use of electric bikes grew. This, together with their passion for this sport, encouraged them to specialize in that segment. “We differentiate ourselves”, says María Ribate, “because we are not a company that sells imported bicycles, but rather we do the entire process of design, development and distribution of the bicycles that we devise. We also differentiate ourselves because we only sell ‘on-line’. This allows us to sell quality at the most competitive price”.

“In addition, – she continues – when designing our bicycles, we select all the materials among the highest quality materials and we give a guarantee since we also offer technical support. We take great care of both quality and aesthetics and we try to make electric bicycles with a very careful design. We are also positioning ourselves well in electric road bikes and we are working to launch new mountain bikes to strengthen our offering in the market”.

BIBŌO was born with the own resources contributed by its two founding partners and, later, taking its innovative character as a starting point, its promoters received support from the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, through Seed Capital Bizkaia.

Future challenges

“In the end”, says María Ribate, “the growth of a company requires looking for all kind of resources and, since September 2015, we have focused on putting everything into operation, designing, making ourselves known, looking for suppliers, etc. After all that effort, we begin to see the fruits”.

María highlights the importance of the work of making the company known in the market to make it grow, even more when the product it offers is not well known. “Before opening our website, we have intensively promoted the company through social networks and, in addition, we have managed to appear in the press, with which we have reached many people. We have also participated in many events as exhibitors”.

Currently, BIBŌO offers three ranges of electric bikes: urban, road and mountain. It produces around eighty units of each type, which can be of different models, at moderate sales prices in the sector. In addition, it can mount special custom orders, such as titanium models or with special changes. “Since we do the assembly here”, says María, “we can always respond to particular customer requests. In all these cases, we maintain continuous communication with the client, which allows us to build relationships based on trust”.