You probably know at least one who has tried it. Perhaps you have even experienced it yourself: Being a victim of bicycle theft. In Denmark alone, 46,121 bicycles were stolen in 2019; that is more than 126 bicycle thefts per day.

PentaLock, which has roots in AAU, will put an end to that. And their vision is simple: Remove the motive for stealing bikes, and put bike thieves out of work once and for all.

FROM 1000 TO 10,000 LOCKS IN ONE YEAR

The idea for the bicycle lock arose in 2016 because three study friends from Industrial Design at AAU were annoyed at repeatedly having their bicycles stolen. Therefore, they developed a new type of bicycle lock for their graduation project to create safety among bicycle owners.

The thesis developed into the startup PentaLock, and they have since worked on developing and refining the lock from the graduation project. The solution has become an electronic lock, which is incorporated into the bike's crank, making it virtually impossible to break open without destroying the bike. The bike is locked with a single click on a key fob, and the lock is therefore both safe and user-friendly.

AND NOW THE INNOVATIVE LOCK IS READY TO GIVE BICYCLE THIEVES THE WORLD OVER GRAY HAIRS!!

- We expect to sell 1,000 bicycle locks to bicycle manufacturers during 2020, but already in 2021 we expect that number to increase to 10,000. Our production setup can currently handle a minimum of 5,000 locks per day, so we are gearing up and ready to scale up, says Emil Norup, one of PentaLock's founders and today the company's CEO.

ELCYKLER ER I EN ATTRAKTIV UDVIKLING

Oprindeligt var cykellåsen tænkt til urban-cykler og citybikes, men i løbet af de seneste år er elcykler blevet mere og mere almindelige i bybilledet, både i Danmark og i udlandet.

- Elcykelmarkedet er i en sindssyg udvikling, især i udlandet. I Holland bliver der f.eks. solgt flere elcykler end almindelige cykler, og i 2030 forventer man, at der sælges 30 mio. elcykler om året på verdensplan. Og det er selvfølgelig en udvikling, vi gerne vil være en del af, og derfor fokuserer vi vores salg 100% på elcykler, fastslår Emil Norup og tilføjer, at deres lås også er kompatibel med almindelige citybikes.

FINANCIAL BOOSTER AND UPGRADE BEFORE LAUNCH

The upcoming launch in 2021 has been preceded by several years of hard work, which for the time being culminated in the beginning of 2020. Here, PentaLock won the entrepreneurial competition Danish Tech Challenge, which included a cash prize of DKK 500,000. At the same time, they completed an investment round, which brought the startup approx. seven million DKK

Among other things, PentaLock has used the economic boost to add new talent, and the company has now rounded up ten employees who are working together on the company's upcoming launch.

- It's great to have more people on board, and I think we have a really strong team. And our product is ready, so now we just need to get it set aside. We sell our locks to bicycle manufacturers who can easily integrate a PentaLock into their bicycles.

It creates new selling points for manufacturers and helps make them more attractive on the bicycle market. We get very positive feedback when we make inquiries, and in fact some bicycle manufacturers also contact us to hear more about our locks, explains Emil Norup.

HAD NO ENTREPRENEURIAL DREAMS

Although the story of PentaLock may at first sound like a classic entrepreneurial story, they didn't really set out with entrepreneurial dreams when they handed in their thesis. But that changed when they were contacted by a business developer from AAU's entrepreneurship unit, Supporting Entrepreneurship at Aalborg University (SEA).

With SEA's help, the friends took the leap into life as entrepreneurs and also received both financial and professional help from the Innovation Fund in the start-up. And Emil Norup makes no secret of the fact that both SEA and the Innovation Fund have been of great importance for them to be able to go 100% into the company.

- The combination of support from SEA and the Innovation Fund gave us great faith in the product, and therefore we continued to work on it alongside our full-time jobs. The sparring and knowledge we have received from competent business developers at SEA, and the financial support and advice we have received from the Innovation Fund, has greatly accelerated our process and learning and contributed to our choosing to go full-time at PentaLock, says Emil Norup and adds:

- In addition, SEA has been a good contact for AAU when we have sought specific profiles for our company, so that we can improve even more. I can therefore only recommend other entrepreneurs to receive all the sparring and help they can get.