Our Story
Our story begins back in 2014 when I first established KP Cyclery (then named KP Cykler) in Odense, Denmark. I had been dreaming about doing something around the bikes for a living for the best part of my life. The love affair with bikes started at a very young age when a bicycle was the only way of getting around independently from parents. Later this love for bikes continued in BMX madness, filming videos and going to competitions.
In 2014 I lived in London. Commuting on a bike in such a big Metropol got me thinking about making fast, stylish bikes for the city. Thus I decided to pack things up and move to Denmark, Odense, where my wife was finishing a chemistry degree.
The company got registered, frames designed, and the bulk of parts ordered, followed by a Kickstarted campaign things started to pick up slowly, and the first bikes got shipped across Europe.
2015 turned out to be an exciting turning point. Early spring that year, a Norwegian guy stumbled upon our bikes. We got talking, and he asked if there was anything for hanging a bike on a wall in style. He had just inherited a bike that belonged to his friend that had passed away.
I had made a practical bike hanger from old handlebars back in my flat in the UK. It was what he had been looking for, and that’s how our Bike Hangers came to life. A Kickstarter campaign followed, and with the help of new team member Gedi, the Bike Hanger soon became the best-seller in the product lineup.
After this, KP Cyclery moved from Odense to Copenhagen, and another iconic product followed – Sidecar bike. Unlike any cargo bike anyone had seen, our sidecar proved to turn heads wherever it went. Perfect for businesses that want to be noticed. Perhaps the coolest of Sidecar projects was a punch of sidecars we produced for Sprite.
Since 2017 KP Cyclery has operated from my native Estonia, with the Danish roots of the company shining through. Thanks to our Danish heritage and my language use, most of our customers still come from the wonderful cycling capital of the World – Copenhagen.
2020 proved to be a momentous year for us, with our cargo bikes taking off and Bike Hangers sales increasing. It was really a year that started the evolution from the small artisan KP Cyclery to a proper bike production.
In the summer of 2020, we were touring through Denmark and Germany, organising test rides with our cargo bikes. Out of nowhere, in the middle of a park in Berlin, I ran into a friend from Copenhagen. He had just sold his startup and asked if we need an investor. It was only then we seriously started looking at our budget and look behind number.
After all the prototyping and analysis, we realised the true potential of our cargo bikes and started looking for investors.
After intense half a year of pitching our idea, we managed to secure a small investment to prove to the World that our cargo bikes can become a real player on the market. By late 2021, we already had cargo bikes in 12 countries around Europe and started to set our aim at expanding the operations.
Producing all these bikes let us test with different designs and solutions on the bike. We figured that bigger back wheel and sportier frame gives the best riding experience. We also stuck with steel frame because as we all know that steel is real, has longer durability and better riding characteristics. With the help of our early investors, we weighted options for securing next finances and went public on Nasdaq First North market where the offer was oversubscribed 15 fold.
In early 2022 we rebranded from KP Cyclery to Hagen Bikes as we previously understood just how difficult it was to spell and remember KP Cyclery. We designed a proper product line and came out with both electric and non-electric versions of the bikes.
That didn’t mean we removed the option of customization, we just narrowed it down more popular choices. We also decided to leave our production to Estonia, so we can iterate new designs quickly and achieve the shortest delivery time possible.
The new name was inspired by the city that runs in our blood – Copenhagen. The city that is built for people, not for the motorcars. Just like the world’s cycling capital, our aim remains to build kick-ass bikes that you not only want to ride because they are practical, but because of the way they make you feel – flying through the city in stealth mode, getting noticed not by the exhaust noise but the striking looks of your bike.
The Swan
In spite of his size the swan has the ability to swim and fly with incredible speed and agility. Combined with it’s elegance, beauty and grace, this nature inspired creature of earth was the perfect synonym of what HAGEN CARGO BIKES represents as a product and a brand. Our logo takes the inspiration from this form to convey a institutional symbol that emanates the qualities of the swan on every product that HAGEN CARGO BIKES produces.
Thank you for reading this, it is you, our audience who make our wheels turn around.
Much love,
Kaspar – founder