Neolix $600M, Avride $375M, Spiro $100M and PTOs embracing AVs

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Top Story: Public Transport Operators are Embracing Autonomy

Two news pieces about public transport operators embracing (or at least piloting) autonomy: 

BVG, Berlin’s 🇩🇪public transport operator, partners with MOIA to launch autonomous operations. For now in pilot mode, the service received €9.5M funding from the central government. Five vehicles will operate within 15 sq. km. area, with rides expected to start H1/26. MOIA recently updated its business plan, and is now in the business of selling autonomous solutions to PTOs.  

PostBus, Swiss 🇨🇭public transport operator, partners with Baidu to launch autonomous service in eastern Switzerland. Pilot to begin now, commercial service expected in 2027. Designed for rural areas, the service is essentially an autonomous DRT (/microtransit) service. This is Baidu’s first on-ground operation in Europe. 

Top Story: Neolix Raises $600M for Delivery Autonomy

Neolix, Chinese-based 🇨🇳 autonomous delivery startup, raises $600M. Funds will be used to “invest in algorithm and technology R&D, develop new products for diverse commercial scenarios, enhance its service network and user experience, and fuel its global expansion plans”. Today the company has over 10,000 RoboVans deployed across 300 cities in China; capacity to produce 2,000 units monthly; has freight partnership with DiDi; and is also operating in the UAE 🇦🇪 and South Korea 🇰🇷. 

Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕

Avride, a subsidiary of Nebius Group, the new Western incarnation of Yandex, “secured strategic investments and other commitments” in the sum of $375M from its parent company and Uber. 

• We don’t know how much of the $375M is Uber, what are “other commitments” and what the investment milestones are. Basically, we know nothing. 

• We do know that Avride and Uber are to launch robotaxis in Dallas 🇺🇸

• New funding will “...accelerate the growth of (Avride’s) fleet, support AI-driven product development, and expand offering into new geographies”

Grab launches third-party partner apps, available natively within the Grab app. This is a super-app play that combines both Mobility-as-a-Service AND everyday services, serving a consumer base of 46 million users. Selected services include: 

• eSIM for international use, by Firsty, a telecommunications provider

• Jolibox, entertainment platform offering games and short dramas

• As well as mobility / MaaS solutions such as HelloRide, bike share; redBus, bus ticketing platform; and Drive lah, peer-to-peer car-sharing platform

Comfortdelgro invests in dispatch tech for its Zig app, answering to tech competition from the likes of Grab. The company moved to cloud-based architecture, opened its app to international bookings, and plans on new features in pricing and booking efficiency. In addition, efforts are made to win supply (drivers). 

Still in Singapore 🇸🇬, Comfortdelgro, recently implemented a S$4 cancellation fee from the fifth cancellation onwards (or if the car has arrived) - and saw a 40% reduction in passenger cancellations. I’m surprised there wasn’t a vehicle-arrived cancellation fee so far. 

And - Comfortdelgro AV journey is not a very long one - together with Pony.ai the company is piloting a fleet of circa a dozen vehicles in Guangzhou 🇨🇳 and plans a Singapore pilot for next year. In Guangzhou, the company estimates that “autonomous vehicles make 20 per cent to 25 per cent more daily trips compared to those driven by humans”. Interesting statistics. 

In 2024, Comfortdelgro’s revenue growth came mostly from the UK 🇬🇧: 

Grab and May Mobility partner to launch autonomous services in Southeast Asia. The deal includes a strategic investment of Grab in May Mobility. We don’t know much about that. Uber and WeRide start offering robotaxi rides in Riyadh 🇸🇦. For now, on a very limited route. Stellantis partners with Pony.AI to develop robotaxis in Europe; initial focus is on medium size vans, eyeing robotaxi applications. Testing to begin in Luxembourg 🇱🇺. Waymo approved for manual autonomous tests at Newark airport 🇺🇸. Tesla claims it has a robotaxi ride-hailing service in San Francisco 🇺🇸- but that is simply not true. 

Lyft introduces Cash Rewards, giving 2-5% cash back on top-up amounts. For $25 a 2% cash back, for $100 a 5% cash back. These cash back schemes are usually beneficial for the initiators (Lyft in this case), as companies enjoy (1) early cash flow and (2) unused sums left in wallets. They are also beneficial for smart consumers, who have the available cash flow and will use all the funds topped up in the app. 

Uber shifts from “Green” to “Electric”, taking away hybrids which were a part of the Green proposition. In the US, Uber is now offering drivers $4,000 (terms apply) to switch to electric, making up to the ending $7,500 for new / $4,000 for used vehicles federal EV tax credit which is winding down, albeit a bit slower than the East Wing of the White House.  

Gozem launches Gozem Money, a mobile money (fintech) platform developed in partnership with NSIA Bank Togo 🇹🇬. Togo was chosen because of the market opportunity the country presents - Togo has 39% mobile money penetration and Q1/24 data showed mobile money transactions up 3% to $1.54 billion. 

NHTSA, US 🇺🇸 transport safety regulator, opens a “preliminary investigation” on Waymo for school bus safety violations, following a video showing a Waymo car approaching a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop arm deployed. 

Uklon 🇺🇦 adds automatic tips - users can define a percentage / amount of tips to be paid through the settings. Bolt adds micro-cars (“compact” category) to its fleet in Bucharest 🇷🇴. Cabify receives legal status in Neuquén, Argentina 🇦🇷 (ahead of Uber). zTrip, the largest taxi fleet in the U.S 🇺🇸, chooses Autocab (an Uber company) as its dispatch software supplier. zTrip has 3,600 vehicles in 40 cities across 20 states. Yango invests in Zanifu, Kenyan 🇰🇪fintech, specialising in lending solutions to SMBs. 

AV thoughts: (1) Kearney on how robotaxis won’t fix congestion, because they will (a) trigger “induced” demand; (b) roam empty for a significant portion of the day; (c) drive more miles overall; and (d) cannibalize public transit ridership. The article has a number of recommendations.
(2) Russell King, the man behind the Transport Leader newsletter, with all the things that can go wrong with AV adoption. And (3) Philip Koopman, the Autonomous System Safety newsletter, writes about responsible AV innovation and the burden Waymo, as a company deploying over 1,000 robotaxis, has to carry, responsibly. Also happy 10th birthday Waymo!

London 🇬🇧 Black Cabs: 

• Aging Drivers: 9,636 out of 16,947 (56.8%) licensed drivers are aged 56 or above; 76 drivers (0.45%) are under 30. 

• Professional Fleets: 6,448 (out of 16,947, or 38%) licensed taxi vehicles are linked to a single, unique registered keeper. That means that 62% of drivers - rent vehicles. 

Another AV map - this time from Factual. The map covers robotaxis, shuttles and delivery deployments, and the information on China is one of the best I’ve seen. The map is collaborative, so feel free to add projects. 

Vert is raising Seed to win the chauffeur ride-hailing market. 

The premium ride-hailing market is heating up, as I’ve previously discussed in this blog post. Lyft recently acquired a chauffeur company for £83M; Bolt opens up ‘Chauffeur’ category in its app; Uber heavily advertising Black services; while Vert positions itself as a tech & ops platform to power global chauffeur. 

Over the past two years, Vert proved the model in London - gross profitable from day one and operationally profitable today - fulfilling over 15% of Blacklane’s daily London demand, with 1,000+ chauffeurs, 95% electric fleet, and a 4.95-star rating. Funds will be used to expand internationally. 

Interesting?

• Sign up for the investor event, mid-November in London 

• Schedule with Dacian, the founder / CEO

DRT, Bus-Based Mobility & AV shuttles 🚍🚌

RideCo wins New York 🇺🇸 MTA’s paratransit contract. The MTA paratransit service has over 1 million trips a month, using over 1,100 dedicated vehicles and a network of thousands of taxis. RideCo is also launching in Albuquerque. 

Zoox opens limited robotaxi service in San Francisco 🇺🇸 - new riders will be friends and family members of Zoox employees. See ride video. 

Little partners with the Bank of Abyssinia and Visa to Introduce “Tap to Go” contactless payment service in Ethiopia 🇪🇹.

Wayla adds five new electric vehicles to its fleet in Milan 🇮🇹.

Electreon, wireless vehicle charging, debuts on the French 🇫🇷 A10 motorway. The company is piloting Charge-as-you-Drive together with Vinci, running 1.5km long on the A10, working with trucks, buses and passenger vehicles. First results from truck wireless charging deliver “>200 kW average and >300 kW peak power”. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Turo introduces subscription rental. The product, named “Turo Monthly”, offers access to a car for a period of one month to a year. The “increased the TAM to $1 trillion” phrasing out of Turo sounds to me a lot like “We’re IPO ready”. The recent Via IPO and Kodiak SPAC signal that the stock market is, once again, accepting mobility. 

The CEO of Carguru, Latvia’s 🇱🇻 #1 car-share, writes about his experience managing a fleet of 180 Tesla: 

• Users love Tesla, booking more often and for longer trips

• Depreciation - worse than expected. This has to do with Musk’s affecting the brand negatively and competition from cheap Chinese brands (more about EV depreciation here)

• Maintenance - heavier and more frequent

• Tesla’s B2B support: missing in action

Cooltra acquired the business operations of fellow Barcelona-born 🇪🇸 urban cycling startup Kleta Mobility.

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Also, the Rivian spin-off, finally revealed its products - the “TM-B”, electric bike, and the “TM-Q”, cargo 4-wheelers. The launch edition of TM-B, offering a range of 100 miles, costs $4,500; read more about the bike and helmet here. The TM-Q is sold (also) to Amazon, which intends to be ‘thousand’ of units. Expect to see it on streets in the spring of 2026. 

Meanwhile, Rivian itself is laying off 4.5% of its workforce, or roughly 600 employees, in its 3rd layoff round this year. 

Voi’s Q3/25 results, key takeaways: 

• Revenue for the first 9 months is €130M, up 31% YoY

• Q3 saw Adjusted-EBITDA increase of 28%; first nine month saw increase of 84%

• Cash flow up from €11.8M in Q3/24 to €19.8M

• Total bond financing - €90M

Prague 🇨🇿 to ban e-scooters from January 2026, due to traffic chaos and high accident rates. Bikes, including electric, are still welcomed. 

Delivery - from bikes & cars to bots & drones 🍽🧺

Amazon and Prosus might be interested in investing in Flink 🇩🇪. The company is looking to raise up to €100M. 

Avride and Grubhub (by Wonder) partner to launch robot food delivery pilot in Jersey City 🇺🇸. The two companies have been collaborating on university campuses since the start of the year. 

Rewe brings back Starship delivery bots to Hamburg's 🇩🇪 streets. Back, because a pilot, focusing on tech readiness, was performed back in 2023. 

Brazil 🇧🇷 Court blocks Didi’s 99Food from enforcing exclusive deals against rival Keeta (by Meituan). More here. 

Careem launches in Sharjah 🇦🇪 with food, delivery and home services; Careem already has Rides and Pay present, and now maxed its portfolio of products in the city. Also in the UAE, Careem partners with Jameel Motors to introduce Farizon (a Geely company) electric vehicles to its delivery network. 

Bolt launches DineOut in Tallinn 🇪🇪- a restaurant discover platform. This is similar to the widespread concept of online restaurant booking platform, adding payment via Bolt's app.  

InDrive partnered with Simpaisa, a leading payment digital service provider, to introduce an instant payout feature for delivery claims (customer refunds). 

In Portugal 🇵🇹, Uber launches Uber One for Students. 

Why quick commerce works in India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 - but not in the Western World. But also India and China are not the same:

• In India, the market is driven by brand managers with KPI on sales; in China it is a part of the ongoing super-app delivery war

• India has a denser dark-store infrastructure, promising up to 15 minutes delivery; in China it is a mix of dark stores and retail pickups, in a 30 to 60 minute window

More inside. 

This guy is running a survey on “the public's thoughts on autonomous delivery robots”. It takes a few minutes: 

SWITCH partners with Deliverart to bring AI-powered demand forecasting to restaurants. Deliverart helps SME restaurants to manage deliveries by aggregating the different demand channels (e.g. Just Eat, Glovo and Deliveroo) into a single operating platform. In addition, it allows restaurants to manage their own delivery teams and operations. SWITCH came in to streamline demand aggregation, predict demand with over 92% accuracy, and optimise restaurants’ own delivery operations. 

AV Freight & Logistics 🚛🚜

Key partnerships in AV trucking: 

In other news 📰

Pumba focuses on helping drivers find street parking. The company uses specially designed sensors to identify available street parking spots and alerts app users. Now they have released their “State of Parking in Central Tel Aviv” 🇮🇱 report, showing that, unless it's Friday night, brace yourself for parking. 

Spiro raises $100M to power Africa’s battery-swapping electric motorcycle revolution. Today the company services over 60,000 electric motorcycles with more than 1,200 battery swapping stations. 

Automotus, curb management technology for cities and airports, raises. 

Archer partners with Korean Air 🇰🇷 for a up to 100 unit purchase. EHang launches sandbox initiative in Thailand 🇹🇭.

Utrecht 🇳🇱 is building the biggest 'car-free' neighbourhood. No space for privately owned cars; 1 shared car per 3 homes; plenty of shared bikes and good PT. 

The challenges OEMs are facing today:

• From combustion to electric

• From hardware to software

• From human driving to autonomous

Requires a change - focus on the product, not the process.

GM to end production of electric Brightdrop vans; demand is slowing as a result of the expiration of the EV tax credit. This article hasn’t aged (Oct. 18th) well. 

Oman 🇴🇲 wants to be a hub for global spaceports. Launching things into space is a growing industry: in 2018, 452 objects were sent into space; in 2023, the number was 2,895. Today, there are 22 active spaceports capable of orbital launch, most of those in the US and Russia. A long Rest of World read. 

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

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Ben Staddon is the new Director of Operations @ Otto Car. 

David Carnero is the new Global Head of Partnerships @ Cubic Transportation Systems. 

Jimmy Pavesi is the new Head of Sales | Chauffeur @ Bolt.

Congrats and good luck!

#movingpeople is a weekly mobility & delivery newsletter - from Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi through Remote-Driving & Delivery Drones to e-bikes and Autonomous Freight & Logistics.

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