Via raises $110M and Zeekr $750M; Bolt mini-car; Zoox autonomous on public roads and a new on-demand transit report

Bolt introduces a mini-car; Grab grows in the Philippines; Free Now tries to block ride-hailing in Germany; Yango expands to Zambia; Cabify exists Ecuador; New On-Demand Transit market report; Via raised $110M; Treepz raised and expands to Kenya; Flix celebrates 10 years; Zoox on public roads; Zeekr raised $750M; NZ drivers vs. Uber and Spain vs. gig-workers; and more with Kakao Mobility, Geolah, BuuPass, Liftango, Share Mobility, Fetii, Vianova, Zomato, Dronamics, May Mobility, Blade and more. Let’s start #movingpeople. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedOn-Demand Transport & Buses  🚐🚌

New “On-Demand Transit” (DRT/Microtransit) market report by Lukas Foljanty, summing up 2022. This report comes while door2door and Shotl, two DRT companies acquired by SWVL (where Lukas is/was Head of Europe), are shutting down to facilitate SWVL’s cash flow and new focus and also in the same week as the new Via (the clear #1 industry player) $110M raise is announced.

The good news: this year saw 236 new projects, bringing all time projects to a 1,000. Market has matured, with demand from public transit (B2G) 77% of new projects and the leading use cases are first/last mile feeders, rural services, night-time services etc and NEMT/paratransit.

The not so good news: this year didn’t see a growth vs. 2021 (236 vs. 244 new projects) and 85% of the projects have five or less vehicles on the service (98% are 20 or under!), i.e. the service is still very niche in terms of audience served. To the analysis and the map. 

Foljanty estimates that “On-Demand Transit Tech SaaS market to approx. US$140M in 2022” - which takes us to the next news - Via raises $110M at $3.5bn valuation. Via confidentially filed for an IPO back in Dec. 2021, but held back due to the market downturns. These funds will go toward cash flow and market & product expansion. 

Back to revenue numbers, Via said it ended 2022 with a ARR of >$200M, which makes sense (back to Foljanty’s numbers) only when we take into account revenue from the Remix acquisition and the fact that in some market/projects Via probably registers the transportation (not software) operations as part of the revenue.

Treepz raises an additional $1.2M and expands in Kenya, adding to its current markets in Nigeria (founded), Ghana, and Uganda. The  company is focusing its Kenyan operations on B2B commute, and so far has signed 20 companies to its service. 

BuuPass (Kenya) raised $1.3M to digitise public transport booking. Money will be used to expand in Kenya and Uganda. Today, the company works with 1,200 vehicles in 25 bus companies allowing a B2B2C booking marketplace. 

Liftango won the tender to digitalise West Midland’s Ring & Ride, the largest DRT service running in the UK, with 10,000 rides a month. The service is expected to double that number using Liftnago’s technology. DART (Texas) integrates Uber ride-hailing into its transit app, allowing people to use Uber services from within the public transit app. SHARE Mobility in Solon and Bedford Heights. Fetii expands to four additional US cities. A new "AI On-Demand Transport Consortium" in Japan, includes all nine players active in the market, such as Mirai Share, Via, Moovit and SWAT.

Flix(Bus) is celebrating 10 years with global 40-countries revenues of €1.5bn. Read the CEO interview, key takeaways: Flix is “profitability at EBITDA level”; the company intends to grow 20% in 2023 and Brazil is a focus market. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedRide-Hailing & Taxi 🚗🚖

Bolt introduces two-seater three-wheelers in Malta. The new vehicle, by Carver Electric, has a range of 100 km per charge and is equipped to drive in urban environments. And Bolt is expanding in Africa, hiring more in the continent. The company is active today in seven African countries. 

Kakao Mobility fined $20M for discriminative algorithm, having favoured taxis owned by its subsidiary and a related company. When the regulator compared the number of taxi calls in Seoul between May 2020 and September 2021, Kakao-related drivers received up to 266 more calls a month and their profit nearly doubled that of the others. This allowed the company to recruit more drivers, from 1,507 in 2019 to 36,253 in 2021, and to extend its hold on the market. Additional fines could come, as the investigation is not over. 

Grab is adding 100,000 vehicles to its Philippines cooperation, saying that demand justifies it. The company has ±20K vehicles today, down from 65K pre-pandemic, which was also the regulatory cap at the time.

Geolah is the new ride-hailing player in Singapore, launching its Beta version on Feb. 14th. In 2023 the company expects to expand into parcel deliveries, and eventually, in 2025, to become a super-app. For now, riders will be able to book a trip for private hire vehicles (PHV), fixed metre taxis, or a private chauffeur for one, four, or eight hours, offering competitive prices. The company’s driver USP is 0% driver commission - instead it plans to generate revenues from advertisements, rebates from digital payments, insurance, and automotive firms. 

In Germany, Free Now and the taxi association are trying to ban Uber and Bolt. The efforts are currently focused on Hamburg and Berlin. In Hamburg, a local taxi company has recently signed a new dispatch agreement with Autocab, an Uber company. In Berlin, the number of taxis has shrunk by 530 vehicles to 5,375 between January 2022 and January 2023, and rising rental car numbers are thought to be linked to that decline.

Uber and Lyft both say their advertising business is growing fast. Uber claims to pass  $500M in ad-sales ARR, targeting $1 billion in annual ad revenue by 2024. Lyft numbers are vague, but the company says that revenues are “nearly seven times in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter”. Uber charges $45 per 1,000 impressions for in-app ads and circa $5 for consumer impressions, while Lyft charges $2/1,000 for its rooftop display ads. 

Yango to expand in Zambia. Cabify to exit Ecuador in mid-March. GETT partners with ComBtas, business expense and travel management software. Solar Taxi in Ghana. An Oversharing long read on Uber Reserve. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Vianova wins Berlin tender to integrate shared mobility services. The company will work with BVG, Berlin’s transport operator, which operates a transport app named Jelbi, managing over 70,000 shared vehicles. Also in Berlin, Bolt partners with Jelbi, a public transit app, to allow access to Bolt’s micromobility solutions. 

Delhi government to start an e-scooter service, introducing 1,500 e-scooters at 250 locations in the next year to improve last mile connectivity. Dance, e-bike & moped subscription service, raised €12M. Avocargo, shared electric cargo bikes, enters bankruptcy proceedings. 

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

DoorDash reported better than expected Q4 sales ($1.82bn vs. $1.77bn expected) and authorised a $750M stock buy-back. The company also reported losses of $1.65 per share vs. 68 cents expected. The losses are attributed to the Wolt acquisition and to layoffs-related stock-based compensation expenses.

Delivery Hero shares fell (from circa €44 to €40.38 close of trade Friday) after the company announced a convertible bond scheme. These higher interest bonds will be used to replace 2024 and 2025 to be matured convertible bonds. 

Zomato ceases operations across 225 Indian cities. Last week I reported that the company exited the Philippines. Foodpanda layoffs in SE Asia. Getir to cut UK jobs following Gorillas merger. Milkrun (Australia) lays off 20%. Autonomous cargo drone Dronamics raised $40M. A TechCrunch long read on the ‘on-demand delivery trilemma’ - how to balance profitability, affordability and speed. 

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

Zoox (founded 2014, an Amazon subsidiary since 2020) is rolling out on public roads in California. The robotaxi is available for employees-only driving a two mile shuttle between Zoox’s offices. The vehicle does not have any manual controls such as a steering wheel or pedals and can reach a speed of 40 mph, for now limited by the regulator to only operate on Saturdays and Sundays during daylight hours, and not in bad weather. 

NAVYA PR states that the company achieved stable revenues of €10.1 Million In 2022. The company filed for court protection, and is waiting for Feb. 21st to see if there are any takeover offers and until March 7th for the court to examine those (if). 

May Mobility recognised as market leader in North American autonomous shared mobility by Frost & Sullivan. Waymo expands in San francisco. 

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

Blade tests eVTOL in NYC with BETA Technologie. This is the first piloted eVTOL trial in the greater New York City region. Blade signed an agreement to support the procurement of up to 20 units from BETA. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedOEMs ⚡️

Zeekr, EV car brand by Geely, raises $750M at a $13bn valuation. Just two months ago, the company intended to IPO and it seems that another round made more sense. Funds will be used to support technology research and the global expansion. 

Ford to cut 3,800 jobs in Europe, or roughly 11% of European workforce, as the company shifts to a leaner model for electric vehicle production. Of those 2,300 are in Germany and 1,300 are in the UK. Ford sells majority stake in Rivian after reporting $7.3bn write-down. And Rivian confirms working on electric bikes. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedGig economy 💰

Study by the UCLA Labor Center finds that “Between February 2019 and April 2022, “median driver pay (in NYC) increased by 31% compared to an increase of 50% for median passenger fare”. Uber and Lyft dispute the numbers, pointing to methodology limitations. 

In New Zealand, Uber drivers began collective bargaining for the first time. The unionisation is a result of a recent Uber employment trial loss (Uber filed an appeal), and this would be the first time the company had to deal with drivers’ pay and conditions since it entered the country in 2014. 

Spain wants to put an end to self-employment by penalising employees with up to six years in prison. Up until now the penalty was fines, but that doesn’t seem to be enough, as companies (Glovo looking at you) were willing to manage with the fines. 

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

London is the world's slowest city, by TomTom. City centre avg. speed at rush hours is 14 kph, with an overall average of 17 kph (10.5 mph). 

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