“TechBikers are a unifying force in the London tech start-up community and a testament to the power of purpose in bringing together a community to do good. In 2018, TechBikers helped to fund 9 libraries in Vietnam, 4 libraries in India and support 16 girls in Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Programme! I’m so thrilled to see this movement continue to grow over the years and go global with rides spreading all over the world. With TechBikers’ enthusiastic and ongoing support, we are bringing quality education and lifelong learning for deserving children across Asia and Africa.”
John Wood, Co-founder Room to Read
2018 was another great year for Techbikers. We completed three rides (Vienna to Budapest, Paris to London and Copenhagen to Berlin) and raised a total of $119,842.72 (or GBP £93,851.86). All proceeds were donated to Room to Read and were allocated for the construction of 13 libraries; 4 in India and 9 in Vietnam as well as 16 one-year scholarships for girls as part of the in the Girls Education Programme. Techbikers investment impacts not only the students in these schools in India and Vietnam and others like them, but also their families, communities, and local governments. We are very grateful to all the sponsors, donors and riders that made this possible – thank you for your passion and generosity! Special thanks to the volunteers, who invested significant time and effort to make these rides happen – thank you so much.
Since inception in 2012, Techbikers was able to raise over $750,000 for Room to Read, which created 9 schools, 43 libraries and approximately 300 scholarships for girls. We share Room to Read’s belief that world change starts with educated children and are proud to be impacting more than 13,000 children in Nepal, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Tanzania and South Africa.
Each library will display a plaque with the following dedication:
“This library was established and learning at this school was transformed through the co-operation of the local community, Room to Read and Techbikers. The Techbikers community is comprised of technology entrepreneurs and venture capital investors across Europe who are delighted to support this school in the hopes that it inspires children to dive into the same world of creativity, initiative and curiosity that was opened up to us by books and learning.”
To make this possible approximately 150 riders dropped their laptops to get on their bikes to train and fundraise for this cause. They cycled hundreds of kilometres from country to country and in the process also made great friends. Here are this year’s Techbikers alumni:
A picture is worth 1000 words, but how many is a video worth? Check out the official Techbikers Paris to London 2018 video, courtesy of Waleed Deeba:
What’s in store for Techbikers in 2019?
We have already confirmed 3 major rides are taking place this year and are in the process of working on a potentially a fifth and sixth. We’ll also cross the $1,000,000 raised for Room to Read…
Confirmed rides:
- Techbikers Vienna to Budapest – April 26-28, 2019
- Techbikers Perpignan to Barcelona – May 18-20, 2019
- Techbikers Paris to London – June 21-23, 2019
- Techbikers Copenhagen to Berlin – September 6-8
- Techbikers Napa to San Francisco – TBD (tentatively April 18-20)
Perpignan (south of France) to Barcelona. The effort is spearheaded by folks from Daphni Capital in Paris and Samaipata Ventures in Madrid. So cool to see the community growing. Many of you have reached out about the Tel Aviv to Petra in 2018. Unfortunately, limited bandwidth prevented us from making the ride happen, but we have a new local team identified and renewed vigour to try again in 2019.
We’re also going to launch the first USA ride from Healdsburg (Napa) to San Francisco. Google for Startups is confirmed as a gold sponsor and we’re looking for one more sponsor to help us make it happen as prices are higher than in Europe. Want to see you company’s logo on the Techbikers jersey and support a great cause? Let us know if you’d like more details.
To support this growth, the organisation needs to grow as well. To that end, we’ll be launching a global steering committee for Techbikers in 2019. We want to make it safe and easy for new community members to join a ride and launch their own rides in their communities. Several plans brewing already and I’m excited to see where it takes us.
Once again I want to thank the riders, donors, sponsors and volunteers for their generous support in 2018. We hope that this inspires you to drop your laptop and get on your bike and join us on a ride in 2019.
I’ll finish with a quote from Room to Read on the importance of this work:
The ability to read and write is the foundation for all learning. When we help primary school students build literacy skills and a habit of reading, we are changing the direction of their futures. With your support, we have opened up a new world of opportunities for these children through the power of education.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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