The Arkansas Global Cycling Accelerator is back for another semester. This program from the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Startup Junkie gathers growth-stage cycling-related companies from around the world and from our own backyard. Startup founders work through a semester-long program to help grow their companies and explore business opportunities in the United States and in Arkansas. This semester includes organizations from Canada, France, Norway, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
Bert Celis is founder of Belgian cycling company Aerobag. They've developed a wearable airbag for cyclists in high-speed conditions. Celis joined Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis over Zoom to discuss his product and his company's ambitions with the cycling accelerator. The Zoom connection wasn't the best, but we did want to share his story with you.
In 2015, former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner wrote an article for the World Economic Forum. In it, he attempted to answer the question: what makes a truly great product? His first qualification, above all else, was that a great product delivers on a singular value proposition in a world-class way. Basically, a good product solves a problem that many people face. And that's exactly what Belgium-based Aerobag has set out to do.
They've developed a wearable airbag system for high-speed cyclists that deploys automatically after a crash. Celis says that it uses a small electronic device with nine sensors to detect accidents, deploying an inflatable bag within 100 milliseconds to protect your back, neck and hips — pretty much everything a helmet doesn't cover.
"Basically, we want to add an extra 30% on top of the protection of the helmets. Because it's complementary to the helmet, you have to wear a helmet anyway."
He says that he's trying to be a part of a larger cultural shift in Belgian cycling. Most cyclists there, pro or otherwise, are focused primarily on speed.
"Lots of people are into cycling, but we imitate the top cyclists."
But Celis wants to ignite a revolution in safety. To get that across, he would need his new equipment to let people move as fast as possible. Luckily, before developing Aerobag, his team was focused on aerodynamics, so layering in those design elements to the airbag system was easier. That's actually how they came up with the name — by combining the product's two main attributes: speed and safety.
Sweat and moisture management were also a factor, though. Celis learned this while designing Olympic kits for Belgian cyclists at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
"It's also a very important aspect when you — you have to make sure that you don't get disadvantaged by thermal regulation or by impeding the sweating."
He says that previous models of wearable airbags for motorcycle riders were too large and did not wick moisture, leaving athletes overheated and slower.
"We see it as a kind of plastic bag that you're wearing, so it's really not good for sweating if you're moving very quickly."
What they have now looks a bit like a life vest mixed with a pair of suspenders. They've developed a way to seamlessly integrate their prototype with a standard cycling bib. And that's why Celis got involved in the Arkansas Global Cycling Accelerator. The program brings in international cycling companies like Aerobag with domestic operations, gives them guidance on how to grow and then connects them with potential partners, customers or investors.
For a cycling company, Celis says Bentonville seems like the right place to network. He wants to get involved with a bike clothing company to combine their apparel with Aerobag's tech.
"So it can also be an important advantage that we can really collaborate with them and co-create a solution — our system into their existing clothing and they integrate their clothing."
He says he also anticipates Americans being more safety-oriented than his fellow Belgians. Plus, there are perhaps unknown opportunities that Aerobag could step into when given the right introduction.
"It would be interesting to have a kind of warehouse, but also a recycling facility where you can really recycle the inflators. And I think it would be very interesting to have a collaboration together with a clothing manufacturer to know more about the insurance market and also to have local warehouse and assembly. And I think, yeah, we still have lots of questions before we can go to the U.S., but I think the first steps can be done in the accelerator. So I think we have enough reasons to look for more partnerships."
You can learn more about Aerobag, the Arkansas Global Cycling Accelerator and other companies in this semester's cohort, and RSVP for an in-person demonstration of the cohort's products and services occurring next month. All of that information is at cyclingaccelerator.com.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
