Marti ride-hailing, CAR autonomous car-share in China, Lime stays in Brussels and Also raises $200M

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Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Marti FY24 report - key takeaways: Marti is gross profit losing, and depends on its expansion into the ride-hailing segment to turn the company profitable. There is much work to do. 

• Focus shifted from micromobility to ride-hailing; began monetisation of ride-hailing service in October 2024

Usage

• 5.9 million unique riders and 1.66 million unique ride-hailing riders; 262,000 ride-hailing drivers (as of Dec 2024)

• Number of rides increased 44.6%, from 21.9 million to 31.7 million 

• Number of unique riders increased 17.5%, from 1.8 million to 2.1 million

Financials 

• Revenue down 6.8% to $18.6M

• Gross loss of $2.89M

• Adjusted EBITDA is a negative $19.2M, versus $17.7 the previous year

Other

• Per the company, In 2H 2024 vehicles deployed with Zoba (dynamic fleet optimisation platform, acquired by Marti) produced 2.4x higher daily rides per vehicle, already covering for the acquisition costs 

• FY25 forecast - revenue of $34M, up from $18.6 in FY24 - fueled by ride-hailing

• For the full report 

Lyft-FREENOW is on the expansion trail: Lyft expands to Puerto Rico. Lyft also recently expanded into more of Canada. FREENOW expands to more of Greece. FREENOW partners with AUTODOC, a leading online retailer for car parts, to offer discounts to its taxi fleets.

So is FlixBus: The company expands into Romania, connecting 50 cities across the country. The timing - tourist season. Also FlixBus expands to Australia. The company has yet to launch, but did relocate a senior employee and opened a local office. Note: peak tourist time in Australia starts in December. And FlixBus Introduces LNG-powered coaches in Central Europe. 

Uber generated $150M from Australian ad-revenue. 

BusUp raises another €2M, bringing the total in 2025 to €5M. The company expects gross revenue of €48M this year. 

InDrive cuts commissions to 0.1% in Abuja, Nigeria, during peak hours; and cuts commission to 5% in Cebu, the Philippines. When in driver shortage…

Last week I reported that Bliq and Elmo launched the world’s first self-driving taxi in Estonia. While reaching out to congratulate and learn more, I discovered that very recently Bliq has let go of 25 employees. The startup world is very much high and lows, and I wish the company and all the people success. To do my part, I am sharing the list of “talented people who used to work at Bliq”. 🇩🇪 German readers, please check this list out. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

 GreenMobility preliminary H1/2025 results:

• Revenue up 29% to €9.95M 

• EBITDA up 76.4% to €3.22M

• EBITDA margin up 8.7 percentage point, to 32.5% EBITDA margin

• The company also reports efforts to introduce self-driving cars, expecting “the first Danish test operations within the next few years”

Meanwhile In China, CAR launches self-driving rental service with Baidu's Apollo; booking ranges from four hours to seven days. This is not a service that autonomously gets the car to and from the use (Vay’s Las Vegas style service), but a full L4 rental service. Only instead of point-to-point service (ride-hailing), the usage period is longer. 

Zoomcar launches ZoomPro, fleet operations software for its hosts. The solution is designed to enable fleet partners to manage bookings, pricing, and vehicles on Zoomcar’s platform. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Also, the micromobility startup spun out of Rivian earlier this year, raised $200M, bringing the total funding to $305M. Post-money valuation is $1 billion. Also, which has yet to publicly launch a product, intends to succeed where other e-bike manufacturing failed by lowering costs via efficient supply chain management and high volume sales. 

Last week Lime was ordered by the court to clear out its scooters in Brussels, as its license expired. Lime is contesting the results of the latest Brussels tender, which selected Bolt, Dott and Voi. But Lime is staying in Brussels - thanks to an anonymous company that offered to transfer its license to Lime, until 5 December 2025, when that licence expires. There is a hint on the identity of the company in the license expiration date; could it be Mobit, Donkey Republic or Hoppy, which used to operate in the city? Readers are welcomed to ping me with insights. 

Dott, See.Sense and Vianova launched a six-month pilot in Helsinki to improve e-scooter safety using AI-powered sensors and real-time data analytics. 

The Vélib scheme in Paris has a problem - more than 600 bikes are going missing every single week. Currently 3,000 bikes - or 15% of the fleet - are missing. 

Evolve is replacing Lime in North Vancouver. Evolve in a part of BCAA, Canadian roadside assistance organisation, which also offers Evo car-share. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

DoorDash increases fees in Seattle. Per DoorDash, Seattle’s driver wage and platform oversight regulations have made it “the most expensive market to facilitate delivery in the United States”. The company states that the increase in delivery costs, which leads to reduction in orders and in revenue, is hurting both users, restaurants and ‘dashers’. 

Meituan surpasses 120 million daily orders, with food orders accounting for 100 million / 83% of the total orders. Amazon and GoPuff partner to launch 15-minute grocery deliveries to 16 cities across the UK. An initial pilot, in Birmingham and Salford, started in May. JET launches Just Eat+, its member program, in the UK&I. Swiggy to shut down Minis, its SaaS platform, online stores for SMEs, on August 10th. 

I love meeting new people and learning about innovation. Let’s get-to-know.

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Grab partners with Korean-founded Autonomous A2Z to begin autonomous electric bus trials in Singapore. For now the vehicle is used for employee commute only, between Grab’s HQ and a nearby transport hub located 3.9km away. Safety-driver included. 

Autonomous bus launched between Rotterdam The Hague Airport and the metro station, with ADASTEC, Karsan and Applied Autonomy. 

In China, Hellobike (bike-sharing), Ant Group (fintech) and CATL (EV battery maker) partner to set up a new robotaxi firm, investing more than 3 billion yuan ($417.4M) in the joint venture. 

Beep launches first autonomous public transit shuttle service in the U.S., in Jacksonville, Florida, using Oxa technology and Ford vehicles. A fleet of 14 customised electric vehicles will operate weekdays along a 3.5 mile route. 

Waymo starting to map Philadelphia and New York City. This falls under Waymo’s ‘road trip’ category, which means initial mapping using human drivers. Waymo launches teen accounts in Phoenix. Teens aged 14 to 17 can now ride Waymo, when linked to a parent or guardian's account. The service has in place specially trained ‘Rider Support agents’. 

Waymo’s rider numbers - in March 2025 a total of 708,180 paid rides were conducted in California alone. In the US, autonomous ride-hailing is a reality. 

Tesla has applied to test and operate autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona. A decision is expected toward end-of-month. And in California, state regulators say that Tesla has yet to apply for a robotaxi license. 

City of Busan, South Korea, to launch an autonomous bus within the next month. Pony AI’s Gen-7 Robotaxi enters mass production; the company targets a fleet of 1,000 vehicles by the end of the year. Pony AI and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to begin robotaxi trials in late 2025. May Mobility launches ride-hailing APIs, designed to integrate with consumer facing platforms. Momenta planning entry into last-mile autonomous delivery. Czech Republic joins Germany in allowing Level 3 self-driving - hands off eyes off - on public roads. Comparing autonomous trucking business models: Hardware / Software / Driver / Transport - as a service models. 

Who is to blame if a robotaxi has an accident. The driver? Software? OEM? This blog post focuses on what will eventually become a pressing question. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Musk’s political ‘America Party’ is hurting shareholders and looms over Tesla’s already troubled business. Tesla is experiencing a significant 13% slowdown in global sales and will be hurt by Trump’s cancellation of the $7,500 EV tax credit and the planned elimination of the financial penalties for automakers that fail to meet federal emissions targets. Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting is scheduled for November 6th. Musk will need to come up with new good news by then, such as the plan to implement Grok AI in its vehicles or proof of the company’s solid autonomous operations. 

Vok, four-wheeled electric cargo bikes, raises $6M to expand its presence across Europe. 

Gig economy 💰

July sees Mexico’s new legal framework to regulate work in digital platforms come into effect. The law distinguishes between ‘workers’ and ‘self employed’ by the net monthly income they generated; if a driver makes at least one minimum monthly salary, he is defined as a worker, entitling him to benefits such as social security, vacation days, profit sharing etc in line with Mexican law. Those who are below the threshold are classified as independent contractors, but are still entitled to insurance against occupational hazards. This is one of the most advanced laws in the world, and it will be interesting to follow the effect it has on the local market. 

In other news 📰

INSHUR, on-demand economy insurance, raises $35M to accelerate R&D into autonomous vehicle insurance, AI advancements and U.S. Expansion. 

Analysis of the congestion pricing in NYC finds that traffic delays in Manhattan are 25% lower; and that every region in NYC has seen lower traffic delays. 

SpaceX valuation reaches $400 billion, record for a US private company. 

There are currently 11,600 satellites in space; 7,500 of them belong to Starlink. A Rest of World infographic story of communication satellites. 

I love meeting new people and learning about innovation. Let’s get-to-know.

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Alok Pandya is the new Cluster Manager - Logistics & Distribution @ Connected Places Catapult.

Anaïs TIMON (ENRICO) is the new COO @ Karos Mobility. 

Andy Barnes is the new Head of Operations @ Hiyacar. 

Neil McGonigle is the new Head of Operations, Middle East & North Africa @ Uber.

Stephen Hunter is the new Director of Place @ Warrington Borough Council. 

Congrats and good luck!

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