BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
A year ago, Bike Matrix introduced its ‘brake pad finder’ – the first step in a mission to transform the bicycle industry, by offering a comprehensive compatibility solution to all retailers, service providers, manufacturers, and riders – seamlessly connecting replacement parts to a specific bike.
As the business looks back on the past 12 months, a number of notable landmark moments stand out.
Progress on the development roadmap
The original brake pad finder saw the business take its first step on a roadmap toward making compatibility easier for the entire industry.
Twelve months later, Bike Matrix now has the ability to assess compatibility on 11 different component types, via a database which has grown to feature more than 50,000 bikes and 40,000 parts.
Speaking of this early development and iteration, the Bike Matrx team commented: “we’ve been fortunate to build an amazing community of beta testers, customers, and partners who’ve embraced our vision and helped drive the adoption of our solution.”
“This support has been further bolstered by our incredible investors and the NZ Government, helping us bring this innovation to life.”
Innovate, iterate, elevate
At the beginning of 2024, the team set out to completely redesign V1 of the Bike Matrix bike selector, prioritizing a seamless, user-friendly experience.
By incorporating bike images and offering a personalized “Bike Lounge” for riders to select and store their bikes, we made the process more intuitive than ever.
The result is what users see today: a place for riders to store as many bikes as they like.
The compatibility indicators also got a complete refresh, ensuring riders can quickly and easily see if something fits their bike.
Top: Original, V1, design.
Bottom: Current experience.
Tech business gets app happy
With the launch of Bike Matrix’s Shopify App, in March, the team knew they had crossed a significant threshold – “Nothing feels more legitimate as a tech company than seeing your solution listed in a marketplace and being readily available to customers.”
Trade shows, brand visibility, and awards
Soon after, events like Taipei Cycle and Eurobike became transformative moments – not only boosted brand visibility but also ignited customer interest and paved the way for stronger partnerships with manufacturers.
By the time Eurobike arrived, Bike Matrix had made significant strides—rolling out key compatibility categories like tyres, tubes, front and rear wheels, wheelsets, chains, cassettes, belts, and cogs.
Securing a Eurobike Award – for what is quite rightly seen as a revolutionary Digital Solution – represented yet another incredible milestone, “providing validation for our team and earning industry-wide recognition that is hard to come by.”
Perhaps one of the most defining achievements of the year was securing $2 million in additional funding, coming from an investor who has been with Bike Matrix from the very beginning.
Where these investors have a strong connection to the bike industry and unwavering belief in our solution, this offers a powerful affirmation of Bike Matrix’s progress.
Speaking a common language, in your own language
With international interest growing, adding language translation quickly became a priority. Rather than using shortcuts like Google Translate, Bike Matrix worked with industry experts to ensure translations were accurate – ensuring that users never saw tubes translated to snakes.
Global brands and the power of shared product data
The team remain incredibly grateful to have received product data from 85 globally recognised component manufacturers.
Receiving product information directly from these manufacturers significantly enhances our ability to bring this solution to life and strengthens our accuracy.
Team growth supports and drives the future.
This year, Bike Matrix has expanded its team, with individuals joining who are as passionate about bikes as they are about contributing to our revolutionary solution.
The tech team has been instrumental in driving continuous, impactful, improvements that have significantly strengthened our platform.
These key enhancements will be essential for new eCommerce partnerships launching in December.
Meanwhile, the data team has made considerable progress, processing 12,500 products in the last month alone.
In addition to the excitement of new sites launching this December, Bike Matrix will also see its solution implemented on a custom tech stack that leverages its SDK code base, which is now in its final testing stages – this will make custom integrations smoother and more efficient than ever before.
“And, just like that, the end of 2024 comes firmly into view: Hard to believe just how much can be achieved in such a short time.”
