eRoutes is a start-up in Groningen with the mission to create a healthier world by making daily healthy exercise easily accessible and fun instead of being something that has to be done. It concerns a platform that creates globally unique circular routes, matching the desired distance and the location of the user. This idea originated from the ‘Healthy Ageing’ initiative with which the UMCG (the University Medical Center Groningen) has put healthier ageing at the heart of its activities.

Originated from personal motive

Entrepreneur Edwin Kuipers’ idea arose from a strong personal motive. Although he has been active all his life, he suddenly experienced a cardiac arrest at the age of 43. He managed to survive the heart attack because of his great walking stamina. During his recovery, Kuipers did not want to walk the same lap every time. A mobile app that creates surprising circular walking routes was developed and launched in 2018, followed by the web version a year later. This allows a user to choose in what way he or she wants to orientate and use the route guidance: through mobile, smartwatch, GPS device or on paper.

Proven relevance

The relevance of eRoutes has already proven itself in the more than 73,000 registered users of the platform. The number is currently growing with around 250 new users a day. Also in today’s COVID-constrained society, where people still want to get away from it all and often visit parks, nature reserves and beaches in large numbers, eRoutes offers a nice added value. Routes are generated from one’s own home, which automatically creates a Corona responsible dispersion of recreational walks.

Accelerated development and growth

The investment will enable eRoutes to accelerate the development and growth plans. This involves automated enrichment of routes with, in particular, cultural-historical information, points of interest, museums and restaurants. In this way, eRoutes becomes a ‘on the fly’ guide that can be designed according to personal preference: it is more complete, up-to-date, omnipresent and not limited to a specific distance or location. eRoutes can be seen as the ‘next step’ of conventional applications, such as paper walking guides and leaflets.

‘In this way we can get (and keep) people moving based on ‘fun’ and ‘recreation’, making regular exercise a logical result of something fun, educational and inspiring rather than something that “has to be done”, according to Edwin Kuipers.

In addition, a cycling route module will be added to the platform. This will serve a broad audience and will make it possible to accelerate partnerships within both the tourism and health sector in order to achieve substantial growth at national and international level. The launch of the enriched platform will take place in the second half of 2020.