ROTOR Bike Components – the Spanish cycling component specialist has completed its sale to private equity fund ProA Capital. The private equity fund becomes the majority owner of ROTOR – taking 60% of the company.
The deal reportedly involved more than €10 million to buy out nearly 100 minority shareholders (such as ROTOR family and friends). ProA Capital has also bought out Möbius Corporate Venture Capital, reportedly present since 2008 through its background funding vehicle INICP.
ROTOR Bike Components is the developer of products such as Q-Rings oval chainrings, 3D cranks and the new patented POWER meter crankset, which aims to improve a rider’s training quality and experience.
ROTOR’s original co-founders and senior management team – CEO Jose? Manuel Banqueri; company President, Ignacio Estelle?s; and Pablo Carrasco, Director of Research & Development – ‘remain principal shareholders and company leaders’ – retaining the other 40% of the newly financed ROTOR.
“The partnership with ProA will allow us to create new projects and exciting patents, which is the dream of any entrepreneur,” Pablo Carrasco said.
“Our challenge is to keep bringing innovation to the cycling experience,” added Banqueri. “The entry of ProA Capital as shareholder will allow ROTOR to face this challenge with enough resources by investing accordingly in order to manage the growth and to deliver the best products to our consumers.”
The company has decided to team up with a financial partner to provide growth capital and consolidate investment in its business. This has essentially involved the rationalising of a mass of small investors that accompanied the founders from the outset, when the entrepreneurial dream of ROTOR was just a student project at the Aeronautical Engineering School of Madrid.
From an initial prototype at the Aeronautical Engineering School of Madrid in 1995, ROTOR has come a long way in almost two decades of operation. The original ROTOR patent related to the variable-geometry oval plate chainring, designed to eliminate the ‘blind spot’ during pedalling.
ROTOR Bike Components shall continue to be based in Madrid, although international expansion is in the pipeline. Last summer, ROTOR confirmed the opening of a USA brand management office in Boulder, Colorado, to support its regional distributors. This subsidiary will focus purely on market development in North America, with sales of ROTOR products continuing via distribution partners.
The company’s solution-focused design ethic has bought many cutting edge innovations to the market, such as the Q-Ring, DTT Bolt Technology and the Self Aligning Bottom Bracket to name a few.
Around its flagship product, the oval plate variable geometry designed to eliminate resistance pedalling deadlock, the Spanish manufacturer has generated €14 million in sales, with international sales across 47 countries, representing 85% of the company’s turnover.
Going forwards, with its backing from ProA Capital, Rotor intends to further develop its international reach and broaden its consumer base – across road cycling through to other disciplines, such as track cycling, triathlon and cyclocross.
