Business News

by Bryce Ward

On Jan. 8, a new program launched in Arkansas that aims to recruit and nurture innovative technology startups in the cycling industry. The Arkansas Global Cycling Accelerator, or AGCA for short, is a 10-week hybrid program (eight weeks virtual, two weeks in Bentonville) that will provide 10 promising startups from across the globe with access to cycling industry leaders and expertise in the form of workshops and small-group conversations. A secondary goal of this program is to introduce these startups, most of which are based overseas, to the burgeoning cycling scene in Arkansas, and to show that this is not only a great place to ride a bike, but also to scale a business.

The AGCA is spearheaded by Martial Trigeaud, a former semiprofessional cyclist in France who immigrated to Little Rock in 2015, and who later co-founded the Cardinal Cycling Group, which has acquired and scaled such companies as Time Bicycles, Detroit Bikes and Munich Composites. Another key player in the program is Startup Junkie, a Fayetteville-based organization that provides consulting, networking and other forms of assistance to existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, innovators and small business owners. The Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program, a business incubation program launched by the University of Arkansas’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in 2022, will also assist the program by providing operational support and networking opportunities.

We will be tracking the progress of these 10 startups and hope to introduce you to some of them in a forthcoming issue of Bike Arkansas. To learn more about the AGCA, you can visit its website at cyclingaccelator.com.