Bike manufacturer moving to Heber, hiring 32 workers Ventum Racing, a manufacturer of high-performance racing bicycles, has announced that it is moving from Miami Beach, Florida, to Heber City. In conjunction with the move, the company also announced a major round of Series A funding, allowing it to relocate and hire 32 new employees in Utah this year. The funding will also be used in the development of new products, including off-road bicycles, according to a release from Ventum.
“Our decision to move Ventum headquarters to Utah comes after years of searching, trying out and negotiating with candidate locations,” said Ventum CEO Diaa Nour. “Founding the company in Miami was a simple decision. That’s where I lived, so that’s where we started. This time around, it was a strategic decision. We needed to find a location where we could be close to our customers, hire great people to join our team and have room to grow. Our new home in Utah meets all of those criteria, plus having the mountains and trails right outside is going to come in handy for the bikes we’re working on next.”
Last year, Ventum was named the official global bicycle partner of the famed Ironman competition. As part of that agreement, Ventum is the official bike supplier for the Ironman World Championships and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. The Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance races organized by the World Triathlon Corp., consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile run, raced in that order and without a break. The Ironman North America championship was held in St. George in May.
Over the next five years, Ventum projects to increase sales to over 40,000 bikes across road and triathlon segments as well as new market products. All Ventum bikes sold in the United States will be assembled at the Heber City location. Ventum is also exploring moving some of its manufacturing operations to Utah from overseas, the company said. Components used in Ventum bikes are currently sourced from around the world, including from Utah, as well as Switzerland, Japan and Denmark.
In 2015, Ventum released the Ventum One, a triathlon bike with an unconventional design. The Ventum One demonstrated significantly better aerodynamic performance than the closest competing bicycle in wind tunnel testing. In 2016 and 2017, athletes riding Ventum bikes in the Ironman World Championship finished the bike portion of the race an average of 18 minutes faster than competing brands, Ventum said.
“When we released the Ventum One, there were a lot of skeptics. But once they saw the Ventum One’s performance, other bike companies rushed to create non-traditional triathlon bikes, too,” Nour said. This year the company released its first road-racing bike, the NS1.