🏆 Grab’s Record-Shattering SPAC

Plus, iCar isn’t Apple’s only mobility play, Niu plots retail domination in China, and commuters pick micromobility over ride-hail after Covid.

April 13, 2021

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What You Need to Know This Week

  • Grab, the Southeast Asian superapp that bundles ride-hail, micromobility, food-delivery, and digital-wallet services, will go public on the Nasdaq via SPAC merger with Altimeter Capital at a valuation of nearly $40b. Even amid a SPAC frenzy, the deal is by far the largest yet involving a blank-check company and means Grab’s valuation has more than doubled in just 18 months. 

  • In an interview with Kara Swisher, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly commented on the latest iCar rumors for the first time, while still playing his cards close to his vest: “The autonomy itself is a core technology, in my view. If you sort of step back, the car, in a lot of ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. And so there’s lots of things you can do with autonomy. And we’ll see what Apple does.”

  • The iPhone maker announced another advance in mobility tech this week when it opened its Find My network to third-party integrations, a possible game-changer for recovering lost vehicles and lowering insurance costs in the world of micromobility. Already e-bike startup Vanmoof is allowing riders to find and track their bikes using the Find My app.

  • Almost two-thirds of urban residents support banning the sale of new fossil-fuel cars in Europe after 2030, according to a new YouGov online poll in 15 European cities. 

  • Following the lead of Lithuania and others, France is giving residents the option to trade in old cars in exchange for a nearly $3,000 grant to buy an e-bike.

  • New York’s CitiBike has surpassed Paris’s Velib to become the largest public bike-share system outside of Asia.

  • While there have no new announcements regarding London and New York’s hotly anticipated scooter pilots, job listings hint at possible winners, including Dott, Tier, and Lime in London, and Superpedestrian, Bird, Spin, and Lime in New York.

  • Electric moped maker Niu will open 10,000 stores in China in the next five years in an effort to increase its global unit sales by tenfold. As the Changzhou-based company scales up, it is also expanding its product line. This week Niu teased its first electric kick scooter, starting at $599.

  • African electric mototaxi service Ampersand raised $3.5m in round led by the Ecosystem Integrity Fund.

  • A California bill would prohibit certain developments from imposing parking minimums.

  • Munich-based e-bike reseller Rebike raised nearly $12m in a Series B funding led by BayBG.

  • Shared micromobility is primed for a massive rebound post-lockdown. According to a recent eight-nation survey conducted by consultancy Oliver Wyman, 44% of shared mobility users said they would be willing to increase their dependence on rental bikes or scooters in the future and 34% said they planned to use it as much as before the pandemic. Only 22% said they would decrease their use. 

  • Helbiz has completed its acquisition of MiMoto, adding e-mopeds to its fleet.

  • Vietnamese electric motorbike startup Dat Bike raised $2.6m in pre-Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures.

  • Danish MaaS app Cogo raised more than $1m in a round led by PreSeed Ventures.

  • As the world adapts to the new normal, fresh travel data from the U.S. Census Bureau offers a bleak reminder of what the old normal used to look like. In 2019, 76% of U.S. workers drove to work alone, while only 5% took public transit.

  • Tier acquired Budapest app maker Makery, which will serve as a tech hub for its coming expansion in Central and Eastern Europe. The Berlin-based micromobility startup has also added e-bikes, alongside kick scooters and e-mopeds, to its fleet mix.

  • Is Germany the world leader in cargo-bike sharing? Research shows the country has 128 cargo-bike rental systems across more than 100 cities.

  • Stuck between two sets of classifications, one created for motor vehicles and one for consumer products, micromobility devices often fall into a regulatory gray area in the U.S.

  • American bike imports were up 74% in February, year-over-year.

Pod People

Salvatore-Palella-Helbiz-monopattini-elettrici-a-noleggio.jpg

Inside the first micromobility SPAC: $GRNV 🔜 $HLBZAs Helbiz preps to become the first shared micromobility player listed on Nasdaq, Oliver Bruce talks to their CEO, Salvatore Palella, about how their $408m valuation was reached, the retail response, and what possibilities public markets enable for the industry.

Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post open positions in hopes of connecting our 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.

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