Uber free cash flow positive, SWVL and Zeelo no more and Bolt Mobility vanished into thin (asset heavy) air.

These three stories tell the 2022 state of economy & mobility: strive for profitability by increasing revenues and cutting back on expenses & planned acquisitions - or face the results (now Bolt Mobility, much bigger Airlift just a couple of weeks ago). 

Also Ola laying off 1,000 employees, Uber might leave India, Free Now continues to add revenues by increasing rider fees, Gorillas looking to raise $250M, Jeep out of China, Uber partners on intercity travel and a q-commerce startup just raised in the Philippines. Let’s start #movingpeople. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedZeelo 💔 SWVL

SWVL and Zeelo cancel their supposed acquisition, due to “overall market conditions and the obvious slump in tech stocks”. Specifically SWVL was traded at ±$10 when It SPACed in late March, but by May 24, the target date for the acquisition, was traded at ±$4.8. The mutually agreed deal termination seems to make sense for both companies. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedBolt Mobility 💥

Bolt Mobility has vanished. The micromobility player departed five cities abruptly, leaving vehicles behind and no customer service available. It is estimated that Bolt Mobility left behind equipment worth over a million dollars. The story broke circa four day ago, and as of now there is still no formal communications from the company. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedUber is free cash flow positive in Q2 💸

Uber posted $382M in free cash flow, the first time ever Uber is cash-flow positive, after 13 years in operations in 3 years after its IPO. 

In Q2/22 Uber generated $29.1bn in gross booking, $13.9bn from delivery and $13.4bn from Mobility. Revenue $8.07bn, net loss $2.6bn, $1.7bn of which was attributed to investments and a revaluation of stakes in Aurora, Grab and Zomato (losing $707 on Zomato in H1/22). And a couple of days after publishing the results, Uber sells its 7.8% minority stake in Zomato for $390M. Uber shares rose from ±$24 (August 1st) to $31.85 closing of August 4th, a 30% increase. The market is back loving Uber. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedRide-hailing / DRT 🚙🚌

Ola is set to lay off ±1,000 employees from its ride-hailing, used cars, q-commerce and fintech businesses - while supposedly hiring even more for its lithium-ion battery cells and an electric car business.   

Free Now Spain adds a "high demand charge" to taxis, and also adds a fixed €0.8 ‘service charge’ (which replaces a €0.3 'sustainability’ charge). Last week I reported a €1 ‘technology charge’ in Ireland; it seems that to improve profitability, Free Now raises prices in selected markets. Makes sense. 

Uber partners with Omio, a train and coach aggregator platform, designed for intercity travel. This is another step in Uber’s journey to create a super-app, starting with the UK as a pilot market for the partnership (Omio is present in 15 European countries). 

Meanwhile In India, Uber and Ola have been busy denying merger talks, in what might actually be Uber trying to exit India with a potential sale of business to Ola. 

Uber further rolls out 'Upfront Fares', the function allowing drivers to view earnings before accepting the ride. The function was in pilot up until now, and will now expand to the majority of the US. Bolt Kenya partners with Zuru for car financing. The story of Lyft closing down its internal rentals operations, from the point-of-view of the employees. Meet Bondi, a Brazilian B2B commute and B2C smart transport company I just discovered. A two parts (part 1, part 2) series on two new bus DRT schemes in Leicestershire by Vectare and National Express.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAutonomous 🤖

According to an Uber Freight report on the future of autonomous trucks, the main advantages of autonomous freight is on road safety (saving lives) and alleviating supply chain challenges by removing drivers as an element. Remember, driver shortages are still a thing, even if not now covered in the same intensity by the press. In the foreseeable future, Uber targets a 'hub-to-hub’ model, that will be automated on the mostly-highways middle mile, with last mile, or inner city trucking, performed by humans. For the full paper. 

Ottonomy.IO, delivery autonomous robots, raised $3.3M. Pony.ai partners with ride-hailing platform Caocao, starting a robotaxi service in Beijing’s 60 square kilometres of high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone. Waymo investing in accessibility design for its rider app. Zoox prepares to test its robotaxi shuttles in US cities. The U.S. Navy begins testing its first full-size autonomous ship.Can an autonomous car be regarded as ‘autonomous’ if it is dependent on cloud services? 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDelivery 🍽🧺

Gorillas is looking to raise an additional $250M from existing investors at a reduced valuation. So far the company raised $1.3bn, of that $1bn in October 2021 at a $3bn valuation. The company has been busy lately cutting back expenses, but is said to not have enough cash to last until the end of 2022, hence looking to raise. 

Just Eat Takeaway reports $3B impairment on the Grubhub deal. The impairment has to do with the overall fall in valuation the market has been seeing in the past year. Gopuff to lay off majority of Luxembourg staff. The question whether Wolt’s (acquired by DoorDash) gig-workers in Israel are employees or contractors is arriving to court. 

Deliveroo extends partnership with the Co-op for another three years; Deliveroo will serve 1,400 Co-op stores. Sainsbury’s launches trial with Deliveroo. DART, q-commerce in the Philippines, raised $1.3M in pre-seed. A 15-minutes quick commerce startup getting funded in mid 2022? How come? A major investor is Robinsons Retail, and the round includes an operational and supply partnership between the companies. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFlying cars 🚁☁️

A Bloomberg analysis of eVTOL accidents: accidents do happen, but the US FAA is still set on meeting its target to certify eVTOLs by 2024. Blade, a helicopter taxi service, has a new commercial (YouTube): fly between Manhattan and JFK or Newark in 5 minutes from $195. Well, $195 isn’t that expensive, which makes me wonder if eVTOLs can improve on the current helicopter proposition. To be continued in 2024. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedManufacturers 🛺⚡️

Ola Electric suspended production of its electric scooters due to excess inventory (internal sources) or regular maintenance (company official sources). In the past months Ola Electric sales have fallen due to safety concerns over spontaneous fires. 

Jeep pulls out of manufacturing Jeeps in China, citing government meddling in business and fear of global political instability - the Russian full-on sanction regime with disrupted supply chains kind of political instability. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIn other news 📰

I love reading stories from around the world and if you do too, take a look at Rest of World, which this week has a piece on “How Uganda became Africa’s digital transport hub”. The Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi) industry is 5% to 15% of GDP;  Safe Boda has been the leading force to digitise these taxi services, Tugende to help finance vehicles. Both companies diversified during the pandemic, Safe Boda to delivery & ‘fintech’ plays and Tugende to general financing. Other startups, such as Easy Matatu (private public transport) and Zembo (electric motorcycles), complement an innovative transport landscape. 

EMT Madrid buses reach 84.5% of pre-pandemic passenger levels in July 2022. Interesting read: Diary of a Pandemic Bus Driver.