🔧 Micromobility-as-a-Service

Plus, NASA helps invent airless bike tires, Vanmoof grows retail footprint, and e-cargo bikes get "Shark Tank" treatment.

March 23, 2021

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by lightweight electric vehicles. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our webinars or events.

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Thank you for reading.

Some news: We’ve finally kicked off a video series for the podcast so that we can better share the visual stories behind the companies that are building the definitive products and solutions in this space.

First up, Oliver Bruce interviews Carson Brown, co-founder of TAUR, about how next-gen design can make scootering safe, practical, and stylish.

We can’t wait to bring you more in-depth video interviews with industry insiders. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified when new ones come out. Thanks.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Unagi, maker of foldable, high-design e-scooters, has raised $10.5m in a Series A round led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund. The new funds will enable the startup to bring its subscription service to six new cities: Austin, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle. The “micromobility-as-a-service” model Unagi is building is interesting because it combines the reliability of ownership with the freedom of dockless rentals. For $39-49/month, subscribers get personal access to their own high-quality scooter without having to worry about theft or maintenance. Recent activity suggests leasing may be a big part of the industry’s future. In the past year, several micromobility subscription services have launched or expanded, including from Swapfiets, Dance, Spin, Voi, Zygg, and Beyond, to name a few.

  • Superpedestrian has launched a new operating system, improving the battery life and geofencing accuracy of its scooter fleet, via OTA update.

  • In 2020, 17% of French households in big cities owned one or more personal scooters. Two-thirds of these scooters were electric, one-third were not.

  • Electric motorcycle startup Damon has raised $30m in a bridge round led by Benevolent Ventures. Not only that, but the company says it has also secured $20m in preorders for its HyperSport line.

Damon's Hypersport Electric Motorcycle Wins Best in Innovation at CES – Robb Report

  • Lime is testing a new feature that will allow users to have scooters delivered to them.

  • Luna, a startup that uses computer vision and AI to improve scooter safety, has raised nearly $500k in new funding.

  • Identifying a new breed of micromobility rider: the “SuperShareUser.”

  • Vanmoof is extending its retail presence from 8 to 50 cities.

  • A new startup called SMART has debuted an airless bike tire based on technology that NASA developed for future Mars and lunar rovers. The tire is constructed entirely out of interconnected springs, so it doesn’t need to be inflated and cannot be punctured.

SMART's METL tire close up

  • Specialized, the third largest bike maker in the U.S. based on market share, is partnering with Redwood Materials, which is run by Jeffrey Straubel, a co-founder and former chief technology officer of Tesla, to figure out a process for recycling the company’s e-bike batteries.

  • The text of the EBIKE Act, which would create a 30% tax credit for e-bike purchases in the U.S., was released this week. The bill has a “high chance” of passing, according to the CEO of the country’s largest seller, Rad Power Bikes.

  • Cargo bike sales were up 40% last year in Germany compared to 2019.

  • Arcimoto, maker of semi-enclosed electric three-wheelers, unveiled a new, open-air prototype called the Roadster.

Arcimoto Roadster FUV three-wheel motorcycle

  • Cannondale is advertising e-bikes in what was once one of the most car-infested places in the world, Times Square.

  • In France, a growing number of companies are offering e-bikes to their employees.

  • Bunch Bikes will pitch e-cargo bikes on Shark Tank this week.

  • In New York, cars are reclaiming streets that were set temporarily aside for recreation during the height of the pandemic. In the coming years, there is going to be a stark socioeconomic divergence between cities that fought to keep congestion out after lockdown and those that didn’t.

Startup Spotlight

Browse startups looking to connect with investors.

🐐 Ride Goat

Start a locally operated micromobility fleet.

Problem

There are hundreds of dense colleges, cities, and towns that have a need for micromobility but are not “profitable enough” to the larger operators.

Solution

We provide a “business in a box,” complete with hardware, software, app, resources, training, and an RFP service to navigate local permits and help launch fleets. Our efficient approach cuts costs by up to 70%, making small markets profitable, fast.

How do you know it’s a problem?

We see that most large operators only target Tier 1 cities, leaving smaller locations out of their growth plans. We have accumulated 1,800 people interested in starting fleets in their locations because there is currently no solution.

If you’ve got a mobility company that’s fundraising, we’d love to try to help you meet angels and VCs through our newsletter.

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.

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