Totally Rad

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small 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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Replay Micromobility World

Ready to relive Micromobility World? We have you covered with two dozen video replays from the event, featuring +50 transportation thought-leader such as Janette Sadik-Khan, Bradley Tusk, Wayne Ting, and more. Check out the entire archive below.

The path towards profitability can be a winding road and each operator’s journey may look different. But there are key elements that contribute to profitable shared micromobility operations. Watch a panel discussion with INVERS, Spin, Acton, Wind, and Vaimoo from last week at Micromobility World or read the recap here with the key points summarized.

Rad’s radical raise

Last week Rad Power Bike announced an unprecedented $150M fundraise—the largest investment ever for an electric bike company. The round, led by Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global Fund, will help Rad scale and fulfill the skyrocketing demand for two-wheeled transportation spurred by Covid-19.

Who’s Rad?

In terms of units shipped, Rad is the U.S. ebike leader.

Selling competitively priced, reliable commuter models directly to consumers, the Seattle startup generated $100M in revenue in 2019 and achieved incredible 297% annual growth last April, as coronavirus concerns opened up a massive market for socially distanced transit alternatives. What’s more, Rad says that in its 14 years of existence, it has always operated at a profit.

The new funds will be used to double Rad’s 325-person workforce, expand its retail showrooms and service locations, and diversify its supply chain.

Why does this matter?

Electric two- and three- wheelers outsell electric cars by 10 to 1, and their popularity has only accelerated during lockdown. Rad’s impressive raise is a sign that institutional investors, who’ve showered long-shot EV and AV enterprises with billions of dollars while mostly ignoring solid ebike businesses, are waking up to the power of pedals.

Indeed, ebike startups have been on a funding tear over the last 12 months. Berlin subscription service Dance netted $17.7M in October, Dutch player Vanmoof drew $40M in September, Belgium-based Cowboy landed $26M in July, and Rad itself closed another deal for $25M last February, to name a few.

The flurry of activity shows investors are not only watching the ebike industry closely now, but expect continued growth.

What you need to know this week

• Can cities survive WFH? While Zoom probably won’t undo thousands of years of urbanization, some metros are faring better than others in the Covid-19 recovery. The Atlantic’s Derek Thomspon notes that large, expensive “superstar cities” like Los Angeles and New York are seeing a population exodus, while regional hubs like Phoenix and Cleveland are experiencing an influx of new residents.

• Buttigieg on the DOT’s role: “I know we think about planes, trains, automobiles, but what about bikes, scooters, wheelchairs for that matter?”

• Another micromobility unicorn is born. LEV manufacturer Arcimoto’s latest stock surge pushed its market cap to more than $1B.

• Peloton is spending $100M to ship delayed orders by air. The lesson: Hardware is hard.

• A survey from investor Kim-Mai Cutler found that 42% of founders she spoke to now favor a remote-first firm over a physical HQ. That number stood at 6% a year ago.

• Yikes. Shortly after reports surfaced that Kia and Hyundai were in talks with Apple regarding iCar production, discussions fell through.

• The possibility of hydrogen-powered e-scooters is within reach, following a technological breakthrough at a lab in Germany.

• Uber is acquiring alcohol delivery service Drizzly for $1.1B.

• After pivoting from MaaS to employee commuter benefits, Hip landed $12M in new funding to help companies bring employees back to the office.

• A new heated handlebar insert from Polar Plug works with a bicycle’s existing grips.

• Helbiz plans to go public via SPAC, which would make it one of the first micromobility operators to be publicly listed. The company will also expand into ghost kitchens.

• The global one-wheeled electric scooter market—i.e. e-unicycles—is projected to reach $147M by 2027, for a CAGR of 5.0%.

• Amazon will start making deliveries with Rivian electric vans in 16 cities this year.

• From pickup zones to outdoor dining, cities have become more willing to experiment with curb space since the pandemic started.

• Revel, the shared electric moped startup, is opening a EV charging “superhub” in Brooklyn.

• Japan will not require helmets during its e-scooter pilot.

• Output across the auto industry could drop by 1M units this year due to a shortage in semiconductors caused by high demand for smartphones, PCs, and gaming devices.

• Ford plans to spend $22B on EVs by 2025.

• Six in ten users of Paris’s pop-up bike lanes are new to cycling.

• A quarter of Washington state residents don’t have a driver’s license.

• Throttled supply chains may have been one reason for 2020’s notorious bike shortages. Last year, the U.S. imported fewer bikes than it did in 12 out of the last 20 years.

• Niu is in talks to supply Gojek with mopeds.

• Canada is giving provinces the authority govern ebikes with their own sets of rules, probably not the best tactic if you want to spur widespread adoption.

• Electric bike sales were up 131% last year in Australia.

• Zillow’s Raquel Russell is joining Bird’s board. 

• NPR explores the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens, where budding YIMBYs use memes to imagine cities with fewer cars.

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.

• Firmware Engineer @ Acton (remote US/Canada)

• Senior Hardware Engineering Manager at Dance (Berlin)

• Senior Business Development Manager, Senior Growth Manager, and Senior Telematics Product Manager at INVERS (Cologne)

• Actively recruiting @ PBSC (Montreal)

• Senior Marketing Manager @ Trov (remote US)

• Head of Product @ Unagi (Bay Area)

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