Lyft & Delivery Hero FY23 📈👍, Comfortdelgro acquires CMAC and the EU can’t decide on gig-economy rules

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Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Lyft published its FY23 report - highlights: gross bookings up 14% YoY to $13.8bn; revenue +8% to $4.4bn (revenue ±31.9% of gross bookings); Adjusted-EBITDA positive at $222.4M; net loss narrowing to $340.3M. In 2024 Lyft intends to become free-cash-flow positive. There was also a typo that sent Lyft’s stock upward 67% and then back downwards - at first the company reported that its 2024 outlook is for a 5% (500 basis points) increase in adjusted-EBITDA margin - only to correct it to 50 basis points, i.e 0.5%. 

ComfortDelGro acquires UK’s CMAC for £80M (±$100M). CMAC is a ground transport player specialising in transport disruption management, operating in the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and the Netherlands. There is strong synergy between the players, with CMAC expected to expand to areas dominated by ComfortDelGro. 

Freenow launch Freenow Plus, its membership program, allowing 10% discount on services for €5 per month subscription. The program is first introduced in Germany. Comparable programs are Uber One, Lyft Pink and Bolt Plus - and the jury is still hung on these programs' success. 

Following a profitable 2023, Uber announces a $7bn share buyback. For those interested in deep-diving into Uber’s results, link to Investor Update deck and the 2023 report. 

GoTo denies merger talks with Grab. Last week rumours on talks were reported by Bloomberg. Grab did not comment on GoTo’s denial. 

Revel, NYC based EV infrastructure and ride-hailing player, looks to raise $200M. So far Revel raised $214M, the last round of $50M debt financing from Blackrock in November 2022. 

Uber launches in Wallonia, Belgium. If you wonder how Uber hasn’t covered all of Western Europe by now, it’s also because historically Belgium had a tough stand on gig-economy and taxi-protectionism, which relaxed only circa 1.5 years ago. 

In Karnataka, India, Ola, Uber and Rapido are asking the government to revise order barring dynamic pricing. The government order was meant to level the field between ride-hailing and traditional taxis, who cannot employ dynamic pricing. TBC. 

In Pakistan, Careem is facing boycott calls by the ruling political party for a tweet that says “program gone bust”, which is deemed by some to be “derogatory and politically motivated comment” as it is also used as the opponent party’s slogan. 

BusUp, corporate commute, reports revenue of €29.1M in 2023, 60% gained from activities in Mexico and Brazil. 

Lyft rolls out Women Plus Connect nationwide, after completing a five city pilot. Ola Cabs expands to its 22nd airport. After Freenow raised the commission levels in the UK to 18%, taxi operators in Barcelona fear an increase in their commissions, which is currently 12.5%. InDrive says it is now compliant with Philippine regulators, awaits lifting of its suspension. HopSkipDrive, a youth ride-hailing company, beats new California ride-sharing emissions targets. Grab Malaysia is under government scrutiny for declining delivery drivers payments; recently the company lowered rates from RM5 to 4-4.5. In the UK, WeMove introduces Platty.io, a transport marketplace and management platform. 

In the Netherlands, umob integrates all shared e-moped companies - Check, Felyx, and GO Sharing -  in one app. Today umob offers 50,000 vehicles on its network, and plans to grow to 300,000 by the end of 2024. Bliq is an app that aggregates ride-hailing jobs for drivers. Its first market is Berlin, in which it has several hundred drivers. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Zoomcar Q3/23 (ends Dec. 31st) results: net revenue dropped 18.7% to $2.4M; gross profits $0.3M; operational expenses down 24% to $2.2M; while adjusted EBITDA loss is $4M (vs. loss of $5.2 YoY); still a very long - and elusive - road to profitability. Net income positive, but that’s because of the SPAC financing gain that brought the company to Nasdaq. Zoomcar has 10,300 registered vehicles on its platform. 

Hungarian car-sharing service providers - GreenGo, Wigo (Share Now) and Mol Limo - have together seen more than 70 million kilometres travelled since they were formed; also together saw an increase of ±25% YoY; there are 1,500 “shared” cars in Budapest, 40% of those pure electric. 

Greenwheels opened its 150th park n’ ride station. According to the company “use of shared cars at stations is 20 percent higher than the Dutch average use of five hours a day”. ZEV Co-op launches an EV non-profit car-share initiative in Washington (state), USA.  

And a reminder - Uber is also in the business of car rental, arriving at your door.  

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Vapaus, employee bike benefit platform, raises €15M in debt. Funds will be used to expand in Finland and ramp up Swedish operations. The company saw an increase in revenue from €4.5M in 2021 to over €30M in 2023. The corporate bike segment is getting “hotter” - with new players entering the field. 

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Delivery 🍽🧺

Delivery Hero publishes FY23 results - highlights: revenue €10.5bn; adjusted EBITDA €253.3M; achieved free-cash-flow in H2/23; has enough cash to meet all future debt maturities (€4.4bn euros in outstanding convertible bonds and $825m and €300M term loans - so quite a lot) without an additional raise; CEO is happy to keep foodpanda for as long as it needs (talks with Grab have apparently collapsed) and says foodpanda is breakeven and poised for growth; guidance for 2024: GMV growth of 7-9%; revenue growth of 15-17%; adjusted-EBITDA of €725-775M and a positive free-cash-flow year.

Glovo, by Delivery Hero, starts hiring for expansion to Albania. Wolt, by Doordash, started recruiting in the county in January. 

Food delivery in South-East Asia: SEA GMV grew 5% to $17.1b; Grab is the regional leader; Chinese F&B brands are entering SEA; the collapse of quick commerce. 

Everli, Italian grocery delivery, is set to be sold for €1. Once valued at €450M, and raising a total of €140M, the company has hit funding challenges and is short for cash, hence the unorthodox price. 

Rewe, a 3,300-stores German supermarket chain, is concerned with Flink’s profitability. Rewe owns 12% of Flink,  which says can reach profitability by Q4/24. 

Shift, a rival operator, acquires Yodel, one of Britain's biggest parcel delivery groups, with 190 million annual deliveries across 50 sites and £561.8M in revenue last year, after Yodel was ready to enter administration just two weeks ago. 

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Last week a Waymo car had a light accident with a cyclist and then one of its cars was burnt by a partying mob; this week we learn that Waymo voluntarily recalled and updated robotaxi software after two cars crashed into the same towed truck. The accidents happened back in December 11th in Phoenix, and the software update was implemented by January 12th to all (at the time) 444 vehicles, but we’re learning about this just now. Why just now? Because these incidents were going to be made public by the NHTSA.  

San Mateo County tries to resist the introduction of Waymo - but might not be able to (the same way as San Francisco wasn’t). 

GM is expanding Super Cruise Network, its hands-free driving, adding more minor and rural roads. Super Cruise is an ADAS product, allowing hands-free driving and automatic lane changing in specific geofenced areas. Covering circa 400,00 miles of roads today, by the end of 2025 GM plans to cover 750,000 miles. 

Didi has withdrawn from California’s autonomous vehicle testing program, with other Chinese companies - Baidu Apollo, Pony.ai, WeRide, and AutoX - scaling back operations, driving much less miles than in previous years. Souring US-China relationship, more lax regulation in China itself and the general shift in attitude against AVs in California are contributing to the trend.  

Aurora’s Q4/23 investor update - highlights: ±3,000 commercial loads delivered and a current pace of over 100 loads per-week; 820,000 commercial miles driven. The company is getting ready for large scale commercialisation in 2025 and partnering with OEMs to manufacture the trucks needed. For the full FY23 report. 

Cruise appoints (first) Chief Safety Officer, an industry veteran. Also, the head of Hardware resigns. May Mobility to reduce workforce by 13% - 40 people. UK’s Automated Vehicles Bill 2023 - now in the legislative process. Vay and ioki partner for teledriven on-demand service. No operational service for now; the companies are examining where 1st service could launch. 

This week I was speaking to Enn from Elmo, a teledriving company, who has operations in Estonia and Finland. Elmo also operates an EV car-sharing fleet in Estonia, and Enn says the saving numbers do add up.

A Verge long read on the promise - and fall - of autonomous vehicles. Once supposed to replace drivers by 2020 and with the industry raising an estimated $160bn in funding over the past decade, the industry is failing to deliver. 

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Weekly suggestion: take a break from sharing. Monday is hard as it is.

Flying cars 🚁

Telefónica Tech partners with EHang, to offer 5G and private networks for EHang’s operations in Europe and Latin America. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Roam raises $24M in equity ($14M) and debt ($10M). Roam manufactures electric motorcycles and buses in Kenya, and funds will be used to scale up manufacturing capabilities. 

Vässla, an e-bike manufacturer, goes into insolvency. The two-wheeler manufacturing segment is troubled, take for example Cake and VanMoof insolvencies and general challenges in reaching profitability for similar players. But also Zapp secures $10M to scale up production of its electric urban motorcycle and expand in Europe. 

Fisker receives non-compliance notice from NYSE as its stock had closed below $1 on average for 30 consecutive trading days. The company still has ample time to regain compliance. For now, the company is busy expanding its dealer network. Rivian opens pre-orders for its R2, set to begin deliveries in three weeks. Tesla’s Cybertruck is rusting. Faraday Future in danger of losing LA headquarters for failing to pay rent. 

Gig economy 💰

Gig-economy - ride-hailing and delivery - are going on strike on Valentine's Day. Thousands of drivers across US cities took part, joined by some 3,000 UK drivers. The reason: low pay. In the US, Gridwise Analytics found that Uber drivers earnings dropped 17% in 2023 (while Lyft increased by 2.5%); in the UK, Rodeo, a drivers’ app, estimated that the average pay per order on Just Eat had dropped 9% to £5.59 and declined 2% on UberEats to £4.21 in 2023, compared with 2022.

The EU fails - again - to agree on a European-wide gig-economy legislation, with France leading (again) the opposition and Germany abstaining. To go into effect, a law has to be voted in with 65% of the EU population representation. Now the rule goes in limbo, as elections loom. 

In Pune and Pimpri, India, cab and autorickshaws unions are threatening to strike from February 20th, arguing over pay. Ola and Uber expected to be impacted. Wolt drivers in Larnaca strike over working conditions. 

In other news 📰

Moove, vehicle financing, raises $10M in debt to further expand in India. This raise brings the total to $344M. 

While listening to Uber and Lyft earning calls I couldn’t miss the many references to car insurance costs - apparently those rose 26% YoY. This increase is attributed not just to inflation and bad weather events this year, but also to political pressure to increase minimum coverage, which in some states wouldn’t even cover you the medical bills. Granted, nobody can cover US medical bills…

The Moving World Report by Up.Partners. It is a 145 page report, so here are the highlights. 

VNV’s FY23 annual report - VNV has ownership in Gett (43.4% ownership, -24% valuation change YoY), Blablacar (13.8%, +43%) and Voi (23.1%, -8%) and SWVL (10%-ish, at $0). Pages 3 & 4 summarise what VNV has to say on its investments.