Control P & get a bicycle
A Silicon Valley company wants you to look beyond the bike shop when it’s time to look for your next ride.
Arevo, a startup with backing from the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, has unveiled what it says is the world’s first carbon fiber bicycle with 3D-printed frame.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which also announced Thursday that former Google and Amazon exec Jim Miller was coming on board as chief executive, is using the bike to demonstrate its design software and printing technology.
The company hopes to use the technology to produce parts for bicycles, aircraft and space vehicles.
“People haven’t been able to 3D print things that are strong enough,” Miller told The Post in an interview.
He said that Arevo’s composite material allows it to get “an incredible strength- to-weight” ratio that is “five times the strength of titanium at about a third the weight.”
On Thursday, Arevo raised $12.5 million in venture funding from a unit of Japan’s Asahi Glass Co. and Leslie Ventures. Previously, the company raised $7 million from Khosla Ventures and an undisclosed sum from In-Q-Tel, the venture capital fund backed by the CIA.
Arevo’s bike-building pro- cess requires almost no human labor, and it allows the company to build frames in the US for around $300 — the same cost as a labor-intensive manufacturing plan in Asia.
Miller told The Post that Arevo expects to be able to print a bicycle in a single day by July.
Miller said bicycles will be available in the fall, and will likely retail for about $4,000.