Popwheels, Inc.
$9,500
Target Offering
$100.70
Minimum Investment
$4,999,998.20
Maximum Offering
$1.90
Share Price
Offering Ends September 22, 2023
$9,500
Target Offering
$100.70
Minimum Investment
$4,999,998.20
Maximum Offering
$1.90
Share Price
Offering Expires
September 22, 2023
The Offering:
NYC is home to possibly hundreds of thousands of privately owned, unregistered, light electric vehicles (LEVs). These include e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mobility scooters, and power wheelchairs. Almost all use lithium-ion battery packs to function.
Unfortunately, most of the battery packs in use contain cells made from the less stable nickel magnesium cobalt (NMC) cathodes – a significant fire hazard for apartments and homes, and an inefficient use of hard to extract minerals. LEV owners use these dangerous NMC battery packs since they want an energy dense battery and are usually unaware of possible battery related concerns or other possible options
Popwheels offers a far better alternative .
Our mission: to build and maintain the first network of LEV battery swap stations in NYC. Subscribers will have access to thousands of swap/charge lockers across the city, where they can exchange their depleted battery for a fully-charged one in seconds. Instead of using fire-prone NMCs, our battery packs will use LiFePO4 (LFP) cells. These cells have a slightly shorter range than NMC cells, but are safer to charge indoors, use minerals that are more ethically mined, and have a significantly longer lifespan than NMCs.
With range no longer the main concern of the end user (because they can easily swap en route), these safer, more sustainable batteries make LEV use even more socially conscious and accessible.
Here’s how it works:
- Subscribers use the Popwheels app to locate the closest swap station
- At the station, they swap our their depleted battery for one that’s fully charged
- The depleted battery recharges in the locker within minutes – it’s now ready for the next subscriber to use
- The LEV owner rides off with a fully charged battery – and peace of mind
Battery swapping is common overseas, most notably in Taiwan and India. Here in NYC, however, no one is yet offering this service. At Popwheels, we believe this represents an overlooked market of hundreds of thousands of existing and potential LEV users. The city is in desperate need of a battery exchange network that doesn’t exist but should. Once Popwheels creates this network, our users will find it indispensable.
| Terms | |
|---|---|
|
Offering Type: |
CF |
|
Security Type: |
Series CCC Convertible Preferred Stock |
|
Maximum Offering: |
$4,999.998.20 |
|
Target Offering: |
$9,5000 |
|
Minimum Investment: |
$100.70 |
|
Broker Dealer: |
Rialto |
|
Transfer Agent: |
KoreConx |
|
Escrow Agent: |
|
Use of proceeds if the offering’s maximum amount of $5,000,000 is raised:
| Use | Amount | % of Proceeds |
|---|---|---|
|
Intermediary Fees |
$200,000 |
4% |
|
Batteries |
$1,488,000 |
31% |
|
Cabinets |
$384,000 |
8% |
|
Location Monitoring & Customer Service |
$144,000 |
3% |
|
Insurance |
$240,000 |
3% |
|
Executive Salaries |
$528,000 |
11% |
|
Sales and Marketing |
$480,000 |
10% |
|
Logistics |
$480,000 |
10% |
|
Rent for 80 Locations (6 months) |
$384,000 |
8% |
|
R&D (Software Dev) |
$240,000 |
5% |
|
Legal |
$96,000 |
2% |
|
Accounting |
$48,000 |
1% |
|
Electricity |
$48,000 |
1% |
|
Office and Storage |
$48,000 |
1% |
|
Miscelaneous |
$192,000 |
4% |
Popwheels intends on powering the very high growth LEV market in NYC. This market has been growing astronomically since even before the pandemic. Popwheels battery swap service is what NYC needs right now, and can monopolize the battery swap market in NYC, perhaps even the USA.
Why Popwheels?
Popwheels is the right company to deliver a battery swapping solution to NYC at this time. More than ten years ago, Popwheels founder Baruch Herzfeld was perhaps the first person in NYC to launch both a bike sharing network, as well the first person in NYC to launch a bike part vending machine.
Innovation and community service is in our DNA. In fact, Popwheels originally started during the pandemic as a community volunteer project, in which we recycled discarded mobility scooters, fixing them up to help seniors and the mobility challenged who needed to avoid public transportation for health reasons. That empathy, whether it is thinking about the best ways to improve mobility for seniors, delivery riders or commuters, combined with technological innovation and improvisation, will be the keys to our success.
Baruch Herzfeld
Chief Executive Officer
Baruch Herzfeld, founder and CEO of Popwheels, is an ideas maverick and inventor. He constantly searches for ways to create fun and functional solutions for himself and those he encounters. Specializing in communications technology, transportation and immigrant culture, Baruch has a strong understanding of how to use technology to build community.. When Baruch encountered an elderly man in need of help because his mobility scooter battery lost its charge during Covid, he had a realization that there is a growing need for quick, easy, convenient access to charged LEV batteries in NYC. Popwheels was born.
Baruch is a values-driven social entrepreneur with a demonstrated record of success, specializing in rapidly scaling change-making startups. He built and launched the first bike sharing program and bike vending machine in NY and founded Zenomedia – a streaming radio network of 30K stations and 10 million listeners for the immigrant diaspora.
Baruch, a father of four, lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He enjoys transporting his 4 year old triplets to school on an electric cargo bike and playing ball with his eldest son. His other hobbies include cooking, and riding around Brooklyn on his scooter making new friends.
The pandemic drove a 240 percent surge in e-bike sales from 2020 to 2021, which is obviously not sustainable. However, all those ebikes need periodic replacement of their batteries, so even if LEV sales slow down, all of the existing LEV batteries will need to be replaced.
Regulation CF FAQ:
For Non-Accredited Investors (most fall into this category) the limitation on how much you can invest depends on your net worth and annual income.
If either your annual income or your net worth is less than $107,000, then during any 12-month period, you can invest up to the greater of either $2,200 or 5% of the greater of your annual income or net worth.
If both your annual income and your net worth are equal to or more than $107,000, then during any 12-month period, you can invest up to 10% of annual income or net worth, whichever is greater, but not to exceed $107,000.
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Onboarding Agent.
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- earned income that exceeded $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse or spousal equivalent) in each of the prior two years, and reasonably expects the same for the current year, OR
- has a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse or spousal equivalent (excluding the value of the person’s primary residence), OR
- holds in good standing a Series 7, 65 or 82 license.