Rental e-bike provider Lime, the London Cycling Campaign and Loud Mobility have announced the 24 new community groups funded in the latest round of their ‘Share The Joy Community Fund’ grant scheme.
Rental e-bike provider Lime, the London Cycling Campaign and Loud Mobility have announced the 24 new community groups funded in the latest round of their ‘Share The Joy Community Fund’ grant scheme.
Recipients of funding in this round include community groups from across the capital, who each play a vital role in their local areas in increasing access to cycling.
From Independent Cycling Training UK in Enfield, which runs structured cycling sessions for patients recovering from major cardiac events, to Like2Bike, which supports primary school children learning to cycle in Hackney, the breadth and variety of groups funded by Share The Joy is a key element of the initiative.
Lime, LCC and Loud were intentional about this funding round placing specific emphasis on female cyclists and supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
It comes as part of Lime and LCC’s ongoing efforts to help more women access cycling with Lime’s Gender Pedal Gap Report finding 9 out of 10 (91%) female cyclists face barriers to cycling, and LCC’s research into unsafe cycle routes after dark supporting this.
Alice Pleasant, Senior Public Affairs Manager at Lime said:
“It has been fantastic to witness the positive impact that the Share The Joy fund has on cycling communities all across London since it launched last year. By increasing Lime’s contribution to the fund in 2025, we’re able to help provide vital first-time funding to a number of new organisations and groups, as well as renewed funding for others. Working with LCC we are so proud to play a role in ensuring these important organisations continue to grow and overcome barriers to cycling.”
Recipients of funding include Black Women on Wheels, a lifestyle cycling club for black women and girls; Cycle Together, who run cycling programmes inside women’s prisons; and Cycle Sisters, who inspire and enable Muslim women to cycle.
The funding round is also supporting three organisations that specifically support the LGBTQ+ community: Broad Bikez, supporting women, girls and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to step up into the bike mechanic industry; Queers on Wheels, a community of LGBTQ+ cyclists, welcoming and respecting all those who identify across the LGBTQ+ spectrum; and the Women of Colour Cycle Collective, a group founded to connect minority ethnic women and non-binary people across the UK.
The full list of organisations funded this round is here.
The Share The Joy Community Fund is a partnership initiative from LCC and Lime with support from Loud Mobility. It was created to award grants to projects and community groups that help encourage more people to cycle in London, with a focus on improving Health and Wellbeing, Accessibility & Inclusion or Skills & Connectivity. Projects that support people underrepresented in cycling are also given additional priority.
In 2024, a total of £45,000 was distributed to community and grassroots organisations including London Bike Kitchen, Cycle Sisters and Wheels For Wellbeing.
In January, Lime pledged an additional £250,000 for the Share The Joy fund in 2025 as part of its London Action Plan to help encourage more people to cycle in the capital. The additional funding will accelerate the effort to reach more communities this year, starting with £68,000 distributed to the latest round of recipients.
The next funding round will open in June, with further funding rounds running later in 2025 and 2026.
Tom Fyans, Chief Executive, London Cycling Campaign said:
“LCC is hugely proud to be part of the Share The Joy fund, helping reach 24 new grassroots organisations in this round of funding alone, as cycling continues to grow in numbers and diversity across London, and increasingly becomes a leisure activity, sport and humble mode of transport that everyone can access”
Some of funding recipients gave their thoughts on receiving the grant:
“Women in prison often feel isolated and can find it difficult to reconnect with their communities. We’re so excited to get this grant, which means we can now run cycling programmes inside women’s prisons.
“Cycling also offers an affordable way to get around after release, making it easier for women to find work, stay healthy, and avoid re-offending,” – Kunle Babawale, Cycle Together
“We are incredibly grateful for your support. This will help us remove barriers to cycling for people in our community.
“With the Share the Joy Fund’s grant, we can reach more clients through our cycling project, purchase new bikes, offer cycling trips, and improve their physical and mental wellbeing through cycling,” – Julija Zilinskaite, Single Homeless Project
“This support will help us increase our ride frequency by training more ride leaders while also strengthening the foundations of our cycling club.
“This will have a lasting, positive impact on our mission to empower more Black women to discover the joy of cycling,” – Faith Uwadiae, Co-Founder, Black Women On Wheels
The Share The Joy fund was launched in July 2024 with £100,000 from dockless hire operator Lime. Its first round of funding totalling £22,500 went to The Bike Project, C86erz, Cycle Sisters, London Bike Kitchen, Londra Bisiklet Kulübü, UpCycle Ldn, Westminster Wheels, Wheels for Wellbeing and The Women of Colour Cycling Collective.
Fund applicants can apply for community projects under one or more of three streams of activity: Health & Wellbeing, Accessibility & Inclusion and/or Skills & Connectivity, with funding applications generally accepted up to £2,500 but with a £4,000 cap for ‘exceptional’ projects. The aim being to enable smaller grassroots community organisations and individuals working within their communities to access funding that might otherwise be out of their reach.
The next round of funding applications will open in June 2025, with a further funding rounds planned for late 2025. Find out more here.
