Made in Miami startup MX Locker sees growth of dirt bike gear marketplace, expands reach

By Riley Kaminer

Ryan Amoils is on a roll. The Miami native commercialized his lifelong passion for dirt biking by developing MX Locker, a leading marketplace for second hand dirt bike gear. Amoils told Refresh Miami that the platform now boasts 120,000 users, with 210% year-over-year growth in gross merchandise value.

What led to this growth? Amoils pointed to a few factors.

For one, the increased prevalence of brick and mortar stores that leverage MX Locker as their digital storefront. “These stores use our platform because they’re going after a niche target audience that we already understand,” said Amoils. Now, MX Locker is building an inventory management system to further provide an Amazon-style experience to both sellers and buyers. “If something sells in-store, it comes off MX Locker – and visa versa,” Amoils explained.

Amoils also attributed some of MX Locker’s growth to pandemic-induced supply chain stresses, which pushed many buyers towards second hand markets. He underscored the particular advantage of MX Locker being built by and for dirt biking aficionados, as opposed to the broader approach of more generic second hand marketplaces like eBay.

“The sport is growing, which is awesome,” noted Amoils. That, coupled with MX Locker’s increased prominence in the dirt bike world, are additional factors that have led to MX Locker’s growth.

Now, Amoils and team have developed Locker Corp., a holding company for niche marketplaces and related brands. While MX Locker will remain the centerpiece of this new company, they have recently partnered with two other companies: Aektiv, a premium race wear brand that they completely acquired; and Gear Focus, a photo and video marketplace.

The idea with both of these moves is to leverage the know-how MX Locker has amassed both in the dirt bike and e-commerce worlds. “The hardest part of launching a marketplace is going from 0 to 1 – getting that initial traction.” Gear Focus already had that, which made it an attractive partner in Amoils’ opinion. Now, it’s a matter of giving Gear Focus a hand when it comes to the software side of their business.

In August 2021, MX Locker raised a seed round of close to $1 million. Amoils said that this funding will enable the four-person team to continue growing, and to continue their yearly growth rate of over 200%. In 2019, Amoils founded MX Locker and was joined by co-founder and CTO Andrew Samole in January 2021.

Looking forward, Amoils is excited to build Locker Corp as a holding company for marketplaces and consumer-facing brands – in the dirt bike space and beyond. “We’re excited to power the circular economy through these marketplaces and show how powerful our tech is. Now it’s really just down to determining what is the next vertical for us to go into.”

Photo at top of post: MX Locker’s COO Nick Tomasunas, CEO Ryan Amoils and CTO Andrew Samole.

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Riley Kaminer

I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.