Uber FY23 profitable, Getaround layoffs and a burned Waymo

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Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Uber delivers a profitable FY2023. Uber has been consistently improving its bottom line, which would not have been possible without Uber’s delivery (UberEats) operations. Revenue grew 17% YoY to $9.94bn, with Mobility bringing in $5.5bn and delivery $3.1bn; Operating profit was $1.1bn (vs. $1.8bn loss in 2022); and net profit was $1.9bn (vs. $9.1bn loss!). 

Gett sums up 2023: six consecutive quarters of profitability leading to an EBITDA profitable 2023. In Israel, the company is focusing on the newly won central airport tender and the consequences of the war in the region; in the UK, investing in B2B and in drivers. 

Vanguard, US asset manager, slashes Ola Cabs valuation by 29%, to $1.88bn. Back in 2021 the company raised at a $7.3bn valuation. Ola Cabs is still in the red, with a $130M loss in 2023. 

Grab and GoTo (Gojek) revive talks of a merger, which seem more of a Grab acquisition. Talks were held a few years back, before the Gojek - Tokopedia merger which created GoTo; now with Tokopedia moving over to TikTok, talks are reigniting. Don’t hold your breath yet, there are still many hurdles, such as valuation, deal structure, governance and the approval of local regulators. 

Lyft guarantees drivers 70% of fare - after external fees such as taxes, commercial insurance, airport fees etc. - and adds payment transparency features. Lyft says the average take home from rider payment after fees was 88%, but that 15% of drivers earn less than 70%. 

In Malaysia, an estimated 30,000 cabs have been abandoned by drivers; 80,000 drivers left the profession; and the taxi market has shrunk by 2/3 to 40,000 vehicles - after ride-hailing took their business, a local driver union says. 

Moia had 445,000 users and counted 2.9 million passengers in Hamburg in 2023. Moia has limited in operations to Hamburg and Hanover, but their VW supported operations manage a large on-demand PT operation in those cities. 

Snap-E Cabs, Kolkata-based EV ride-hailing, raises $2.5M. The company has been operating for roughly 1.5 years, and has a fleet of 600 vehicles, up from 400 six months ago. Plans are to expand to 1,000 vehicles and additional cities by the end of 2024 (and probably raise more on the way). 

Chalo starts airport service in Mumbai, running 230 daily buses. Wheely, premium on-demand chauffeur service, plans to launch in Dubai. Hawaii now requires TNCs (ride-hailing companies) to have a government permit. In Romania, taxi drivers protest against ride-hailing companies. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Getaround cuts 30% of its North American workforce while the company strives for profitability. It isn’t clear how many employees will be affected, but my estimate, based on past numbers published, is that circa 50 employees will be made redundant. The company says it will save ±$7M in costs annually. In Q3/23, Getaround had adjusted EBITDA of -$11.3M, so there is still much to do to achieve profitability. 

Amovens vehicle breakdown: 50% small cars (B segment), 20% SUV, 9% saloons, 8% vans and the rest sedans, campers, convertibles. GreenMobility record number of rides in Copenhagen: 63,000 trips in January. Zoomcar partners with CARS24 to offer hosts used-car purchases and flexible financing options. Back in December I wrote about Mevo’s crowdfunding campaign - the campaign is ending in four days, and so far raised NZ$4.1M. Miles exits Bonn. The company cites “excessive cost burden of parking and special use fees”. Cambio, station-based car sharing, is going after X-Miles customers. Hyre expanded into Gothenburg (Sweden), Aarhus (Denmark) and Odense (Denmark) and are now in 3 countries and 9 cities.

Car sharing ecosystem report. Key takeaways: 

• Implementation challenges are caused by limiting local authority regulation and lack of coordination between neighbouring local authorities 

• High operating costs, poor coordination with competitors, narrow scheme focus, unfavourable revenue-sharing models & parking arrangements with local authorities, and lack of collaboration with OEMs are all contributing to profitability challenges

The paper has seven recommendations for local authorities and five for operators, to build a successful car-sharing ecosystem. For more. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Gogoro expands its battery-swapping electric scooters to the Americas, partnering with Copec and launching in Chile and Colombia. The company also published its FY2023 summary: $349.8M revenue, down 8.6% YoY; net loss of $76.9M (was $98.9M in 2022). For next year, the company expects revenue of circa $400M, 90% from Taiwan and 10% from international markets. 

Marti acquired global fleet optimisation provider Zoba, in the goal of improving operational performance. 

I love meeting new people, learning about new companies and exchanging opinions. Want to get-to-know and talk mobility? Let’s have a coffee chat. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

Starship, delivery robots, raises $90M, bringing total to $230M. In the 10 years the company has been active, it served 6 million deliveries in 80 locations, travelling 11 million miles. Starship partners with the likes of Bolt, Grubhub and the Co-Op. Funds will be used for expansion of services, manufacturing needs and software development. 

Delivery Hero announces preliminary 2023 results and 2024 guidance: in 2023, GMV grew by 6.8% to €47.6bn; revenue grew by 15.7% to €11.1bn; adjusted EBITDA over €250M, 0.6% of revenue; free-cash-flow (FCF) breakeven achieved; and 2024 guidance continues growth and positive FCF. But shares fell, as (1) the foodpanda deal has been rumoured to collapse; (2) the Grab-GoTo (Gojek) merger talks are a strategic threat; and (3) there is a 2026-2027 debt maturing which might require an additional raise. 

Elroy Air, autonomous cargo drones, raised $48.9M in a venture round. 

Zomato posted a profit for the third straight quarter, reporting net profit of ±$16.6M for Q3/23, above analysts’ expectations. 

Yodel prepares for administration and is looking for buyers. In 2023, Yodel delivered 191 million parcels, working with brands such as John Lewis, Argos and AO World. Yodel “joins” Evri, another large UK e-commerce delivery firm, who is also looking for buyers. 

Glovo partners with Crai, an Italian grocery chain, to offer a 30-min delivery service, beginning with a pilot in eight stores. Uber lays off 168 people as it cuts Drizly and absorbs operations into UberEats. 

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Project 3 Mobility, a Croatian autonomous robotaxi start-up, headed by the owner of Rimac, raises €100M. Back in January the company announced a partnership with Kia to advance robotaxis, set to launch in Zagreb in 2026. 

TASARU Mobility Investments, a Saudi investment group, who led the Project 3 round, is also looking at investing heavily in Holon, the autonomous shuttle by the BENTELER Group. It won’t surprise readers to know that Saudi is heavily investing in advanced mobility.  

A Waymo vehicle has been set on fire in Chinatown, San Francisco. Video. There is growing resentment against AVs in SF. which for now has manifested mostly in “coning” of vehicles; now public emotions have grown to physical destruction. Is this representative or an isolated case? 

Three days before that, Waymo had an accident. A Waymo car operating in San Francisco hit a cyclist, who sustained minor injuries and was able to leave the scene on his own. Waymo says that “the cyclist was occluded by the truck and quickly followed behind it, crossing into the Waymo vehicle’s path. When they became fully visible, our vehicle applied heavy braking but was not able to avoid the collision”. 

May Mobility’s CEO on “The Curse of Billions”. An honest article. 

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Weekly suggestion: send this to the person who always leaves the office last.

Flying cars 🚁

TMNT’s “Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) landscape”. Four events have contributed to the renewed TMNT interest in AAM: (1) Joby Aviation’s certification milestone; (2) emergence of strategic alliances; (3) 1st NYC flight; and (4) EHang’s regulatory success - pointing that the industry is maturing towards commercialisation. And so, TMNT are kicking off a “AAM Market Readiness Radar” - starting with an analysis of the general market. 

Joby granted six years exclusivity in Dubai. Expect initial operations in 2025 and commercialisation in 2026. Lilium wants Orlando International Airport (MCO) to be its network hub in central Florida, supporting legislation that will make the airport Florida’s official AAM test site. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Arrival UK enters administration. Arrival has not managed to produce any vehicles, and is looking to sell the IP and assets it generated over the years. 

Sono Motors insolvency plan has been approved by the court and the company is “back in action” with a new investment. The company features new management and  is promoting its “Solar Bus Kit”. 

A TechCrunch deep-dive on Fisker reveals that the Fisker Ocean has been suffering from a myriad of problems, from sudden loss of power to loss of braking power to failing fob keys. 

River, electric two-wheelers manufacturer and a competitor of Ola Electric, raised $40M. 

Gig economy 💰

Rappi workers are unhappy with the mediator that was set up to mediate issues between the company and its workforce. The new entity is “toothless”. 

In other news 📰

Yandex, “Russia’s Google”, sells its Russian operators for $5.2bn to a local consortium and “rescues” to a Netherland-based company activities in self-driving, cloud, data, and education. The deal has been negotiated for 18 months, with the Kremlin unable to forcibly seize the company in fear of losing all developers (who many fled to other countries) and eventually the company itself; and the owners wanting to sell in order to save the non-Russian operations. The deal was made in Chinese Yuan. 

This is a mobility newsletter - so let’s talk about Avride, the autonomous company which has now managed to “escape” Russia: 10 million miles (16km) on public roads; 200,000 deliveries; and  experience running robotaxi in Moscow. Post-sale, the plan is to scale Avride’s operations. TBC. 

Crash test indicates that guardrails are no match for Electric SUVs. These vehicles are 20% to 50% heavier than ICE vehicles, too heavy for current design. As cars get bigger and heavier, we learn that the infrastructure, from parking to guardrails is suddenly unfit for purpose.