⛰ BlackRock Backs Revel

Plus, Razor scooter goes electric, Boston's fare-free pilot shows promise, and 1 in 3 Dutch people now own an ebike.

Welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter. Find out what’s happening in the wide world of tech, transportation, and cities, and don’t forget to sign up for more free weekly newsletters, below.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Revel, the Brooklyn-based startup known for offering app-based moped rentals, has raised $126M in a Series B round, led by BlackRock, to develop fast-charging EV infrastructure. In addition to recent news that the company is launching an all-Tesla ridehail service in Manhattan and ending ebike subscriptions, the latest fundraise suggests Revel is broadening its strategic focus to encompass not just micromobility, but vehicle electrification at large.

  • The Netherlands now has nearly 5M ebikes, with one-third of Dutch people owning at least one ebike.

  • APAC micromobility provider Beam has raised $93M in a Series B round to enter new countries in Asia and deploy its next-generation e-scooter.

  • After a rocky 2020, shared mobility services appear to have rebounded in 2021. According to the European Shared Mobility Index, the number of shared vehicles on the street in 16 European cities grew 76%, year-over-year.

  • Technology analyst Azeem Azhar interviews Horace Dediu about why many more of us will soon be getting around cities on electric scooters, bikes, and buggies—and how that could change our lives for the better. Key quote: “Eighty percent of urban trips are less than two miles long. So why do so many of us make them in big, inefficient, and expensive vehicles?”

  • Several Dutch cities are weighing new regulations that would restrict road congestion and limit the proliferation of dark stores caused by super fast delivery services.

  • The battery pack for a single EV Hummer contains the same amount of energy as the cells in 7,000 iPhones.

  • Two months into 2022, an estimated $725M has been invested in shared and owned micromobility.

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  • New research in Seattle by Carnegie Melon University shows that, if even 10% of short car trips taken during afternoon rush hour were replaced with ebikes, the city could decrease vehicle miles traveled by more than 7,300 miles a day.

  • Gogoro announced the millionth battery in its global battery-swap network.

  • Preliminary results from Boston’s fare-free pilot show that transit ridership has increased 20% and on-time performance has improved.

  • Taur, a London-based startup that makes and sells high-design electric scooters, has raised $1.75M from Trucks VC. (Watch: Taur co-founder Carson Brown argues the future of scooters is owned, not shared).

taur e-scooter

  • Chinese authorities announced that food delivery platforms should further reduce the service fees charged to restaurants in order to lower the operating costs for food and beverage businesses.

  • Piaggio is developing a new EV moped for the Indian market.

  • Shared micromobility startup Veo unveiled its latest sit-down scooter, featuring an audible electric motor noise to alert nearby pedestrians.

  • Razor, that company that jumpstarted the kick scooter craze twenty years ago, is now adding batteries and motors to its classic products.

  • Aricomoto introduced a three-wheeled ebike design called the Lean Mean Machine (LMM). The radical new bike (trike?) employs tilting technology to help it corner smoothly, as seen here.

  • But that’s not all. Taking aim at the growing demand for urban delivery modes, Arcimoto and Faction also unveiled a teleoperated 75-mph three-wheeled electric delivery vehicle.

  • The Atlantic says RIP to the five-day workweek, and along with, the 9-5 office commute: “In the next decade, U.S. workers will spend about 25 percent of their time working from home… That’s 20 percentage points higher than the pre-pandemic figure, leaving companies with an important choice: sign for significantly less office space, or accept that significantly more of your space will go unused on a given day.”

  • There is a parking spot for sale in Boston that could go for as much as $750,000.

Startup Spotlight

Browse startups looking to connect with investors.

Quality PEVs to be ridden thousands of miles for multiple years

Problem: Existing stand-up personal electric vehicles (PEVs) carry too much fall risk.

Solution: CycleBoard redefines stability and gives riders a greater level of control by using a patented steering technology and 3-wheel platform.

How do you know it’s a problem? Studies show emergency room visits caused by e-scooter, ebike, and hoverboard accidents increased 70% between 2017 and 2020.

Looking to connect with…

  • Investors

  • Manufacturers

  • Dealers/Resellers

Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post open positions in hopes of connecting our talented readers with professional opportunities in the burgeoning world of new mobility. Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to view fresh listings every week.

Hit reply if you have a job that you’re interested in listing.

Dance (Berlin, unless otherwise noted):

Radio Flyer: Bike Design Engineer (Chicago)

UBCO (US):

Micromobility Industries: Business Development Representative

Current Events

Browse cool upcoming events we recommend.

  • Curbivore is coming to Los Angeles on March 4th for a daylong event focusing on the future of curb tech, restaurants/retail, and civic space post-pandemic.

  • TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 invites founders, engineers, and investors to join them in San Mateo (or virtually) on May 18-20 to explore the business, policies, and ethics of new mobility tech.