Wheelys bike cafes coming to Toronto

An Indiegogo crowd funding campaign for bicycle cafe Wheelys generated almost $120,000 in just four days. For this campaign, most backers weren't only supporting an innovative and environmentally friendly initiative; rather, they were purchasing their very own mobile cafes.

According to Wheelys CEO Per Cromwell, the Swedish company has already sold a couple of tricked-out bikes to enterprising individuals in Toronto. "Canada is one of the countries where we got the most requests for," he said via email. However, at publishing time, there was no confirmed date for when a Wheelys cafe would actually start serving in Toronto.

Each Wheelys 3 (there were two previous models) costs $2,999 USD. The bikes comes with three burners where baristas can whip up pour over coffees for customers.

The cafes are also equipped with running water and can serve other hot and cold beverages as well as pastries and snacks. A mobile app runs the entire operation, determining measurements such as the ideal coffee brewing temperature. Buyers can choose larger, upgraded models and these even include portable greenhouses that grow coffee beans.

Wheelys operates like a franchise, however, individual owners get to keep 90 percent of their revenue. And recently, Tech Crunch reported that seed funder Y Combinator, whose startups include Reddit and AirBnB, backed the company.

Would you buy your morning coffee from Wheelys? Let us know in the comments.

by Amy Grief via blogTO