Aigars Lauzis presents his latest model, which can be converted from a tricycle camper into a boat, and the boat in turn adapted for accommodation, at the "BeTriton" production site in Valmiera. "It has been an engineer's challenge to solve all these mechanisms, a lot of technical challenges to solve it all."
The idea to combine the three into one came about when Aigars traveled the world by bicycle once, and he says that the basic idea is that when he goes outdoors, the journey should be environmentally friendly.
"With this product, first of all, we are replacing diesel camper vans, we are replacing diesel boats, it's all electric, there's a solar panel to charge it, we leave no footprint, we can get to the most beautiful nature on the road without leaving any footprint, we don't need concrete platforms to get into that lake, we just pull up on the bike, pick up the cart and go," says Aigars.
Lija Lauze, the company's project manager and Aigars' spouse, says that creating an interesting means of transport would also encourage people to get outdoors more.
Several prototypes of the vehicle have been developed over the past years, with the BeTriton being continuously improved. The support of Norwegian grants has been essential here, as have other support instruments. Now Aigars believes that his team is ready to start production, but needs investors.
"There is a lot of media interest from all over the world, so we have a great foundation there to go ahead and do what we are doing," says Aigars.
The idea is to create a crowdfunding campaign. This means that everyone who invests even a small amount in the company will become a shareholder.
"The basic idea is that you can sell your shares for a much higher amount, right now we are at an early stage and people have the opportunity to get their hands on those shares for a much lower amount than it will be afterward," says Aigars.
In their search for investors, Aigars and his team also took BeTriton on tour to Berlin, Amsterdam, and Tallinn last week.
"In Tallinn, we made it to the finals of the European Angel Investor Congress, like the finals of the startup presentations, the top 17 in all of Europe. We are of course already looking for parallel partners, bigger clients like that. [..]. We are here, we want to be a Latvian company, we are proud of it. Now we will also look for some funds and development opportunities so that we can build a small production facility here in Valmiera, in the territory of the Industrial Park," says Aigars.
The funding will be used to start production of electric bicycle amphibious vehicles, to open a rental point this summer in Smiltena at Lake Tepera and there are plans for a rental point also at Lake Constance in Switzerland.
