Launching today on Indiegogo, HaamLock is offering a smarter bike lock

EVANSTON, Illinois (May 31,2013)  - Launching today on Indiegogo, HaamLock is offering a smarter bike lock. This new high-tech bike lock allows you to lock and unlock your bike with a free smartphone app. But the app doesn’t just serve as a traditional bike lock, it also provides feedback on the safest locations to park your bike, warning you if you’re in a high-theft area.

Last summer three Kellogg School of Management students, Joppe Bijlsma, Abhishek (A.K.) Singh and Zeina Abou-Said, arrived on Northwestern University’s campus for the start of classes. Their friend had just bought a brand new bike, only to have it stolen from campus a few hours later. Over a million bicycles like his are stolen every year, yet bike locks have not changed much since their inception over 40 years ago. Bike lock keys are broken or lost often enough that their owners can regularly be found on campus sawing off their own locks. The team thought there must be something they could do to solve this problem.

Joppe, Zeina and A.K. pitched the HaamLock concept to a group of professors and local entrepreneurs in a startup competition last fall.  As finalists, they were accepted into the university’s NUvention Web program – a unique interdisciplinary incubator that allows Northwestern undergraduate and graduate students to collaborate on digital startups. As a part of this program, the HaamLock team has received mentorship from Bracken Darrell, CEO of Logitech; Rob Shurtleff, Managing Director at Divergent Ventures and Bob Plaschke, President & CEO of Sonim Technologies.

It was here that they teamed up with Mengyuan Tu, a graduate design student, Shaker Islam, an undergraduate computer science major, and Patrick Leonard, an undergraduate mechanical engineering student. Joppe, who worked at the Boston Consulting Group, Zeina, who worked in business and product development for startups, and A.K, former director of engineering at Webscan, rounded out this team perfectly. Together, they became HaamLock and immediately got to work.

Now, the team is looking to raise $250,000 on Indiegogo to help fund the first round of production for the bike locks. They are offering awards ranging from thank you tweets to the bike lock and even dinner with the founders.  Pledge $149 or more to get your hands on one of these clever new locks. To learn more or to contribute, check out the HaamLock campaign at http://igg.me/at/haamlock/x/3454190 or visit them at www.haamlock.com.

Contact Information

Zeina Abou-Said

Co-Founder

HaamLock

zeina@haamlock.com