Fresh off a $17.4 million fundraise in May, GetHenry announced it is changing its name to Cycle, reflecting both the fact that the company makes bicycles and tricycles, and highlighting the company’s green sustainability ambitions.
“The new name and strong brand identity fit with our mission to decarbonise the commercial transportation sector. We are focusing on electric utility bikes instead of internal combustion engine vehicles,” says Luis Orsini-Rosenberg, one of the company’s founders. “As a brand, Cycle is urban, bold and cool, which is why we think couriers will identify with Cycle.”
To me, the name change was a bit of a headscratcher. GetHenry may not immediately shout “electric bikes”, but at least it has the benefit of being obscure enough to be trademarkable. Cycle, being a rather generic, if slightly anachronistic, term for bicycles and motorcycles, doesn’t have that benefit. Indeed, the company told me it isn’t pursuing a trademark of the word “cycle”.
Queried on this, the company’s founder told me they are trademarking the specific shape of the logo, but not the wordmark. This puts them at risk of another electric bike company swooping in with the same name or, more likely, a knock-off manufacturer jumping in and starting to make Cycle products that have nothing to do with the German brand. As someone who had huge issues with copycats copying a hardware product (complete with our logos!) and was eventually able to put a stop to that through trademark law, I hope the company has considered its name and trademark strategy carefully. May it not come back to bite them in the bike saddles.
In any case, the company is worth keeping an eye on, as it continues to peddle its last-mile delivery solutions.