Waymo 200k rides/week, Bolt enters loyalty, Volocopter new investor? and so much on AVs

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility", focused on growth.

Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Mercedes-Benz and BMW are reportedly looking for a buyer for FreeNow, at a €500M valuation, and are said to have hired Lazard, investment banking, to do so. This has been expected, as automakers are focusing on core activities and shedding “new mobility” solutions. Back in November 2023 a deal with Kakao Mobility was on the table, but sides could not agree on a price, with Kakao reportedly offering circa $200M. Since then, back in May 2024 Gett has been acquired (pending antitrust approval) for $175M. FreeNow could be relevant for an international player (Kakao, Didi, Lyft? etc.) who want to break into Europe. To be continued. 

Bolt News

Bolt is said to be preparing for an IPO, which is also expected and is publicly on Bolt’s roadmap. The company achieved a €7.4 billion valuation back in 2022. Could Bolt IPO and use the funds to buy FreeNow? Unlikely. To be continued. 

Bolt launches Bolt Plus, its membership scheme. The scheme offers 15% cashback, free deliveries, free rides cancellations and priority pickups and deliveries (T&Cs applied). This week Bolt Plus launched in Estonia, after previously launching in Lithuania, Portugal and Romania. Latvia, Czechia and Cyprus are the next markets for the scheme to be rolled in. 

Bolt partners with Forest, London e-bike with 15k bikes across the city, to offer Forest via the Bolt app. In London, Lime and Forest are the two e-bike suppliers, which puts Bolt head to head versus Uber & Lime. 

Also Bolt now offering a women-only ride option in Prague. 

Yango everywhere: Yango launches a premium service in Ivory Coast. Yango launches food delivery in Senegal. The company entered Senegal in December 2021, and also offers ride-hailing and parcel deliveries. Yango launches in Sharjah, UAE, in partnership with a local taxi company. Yango expands to Bafoussam, Cameroon. Yandex is the major player in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but has not yet managed to conquer the Tajikistan market. 

Uber News

Uber launches Uber Shuttle in Chicago, in partnership with United Center, home to the Chicago Bulls, and an events space. Uber offers a pre-booked service to main points in Chicago, following games and concerts. 

Uber launches ‘Uber Saarthi’ in Assam, India, enabling women and army veterans to onboard their private vehicles and drive on the Uber platform. Note that the private gig-economy isn’t allowed in Assam, and this is a first, serving as a test case for Uber and as a way for the government to increase income of these populations. 

Uber pilots Teens in India. Uber in Brussels Airport. 

And Also

InDrive offers driver loans in Indonesia. The service is live in Mexico and Colombia, now also in Indonesia. Repayments are taken directly from ride fares. 

Padam enters Zeeland, Netherlands, with a 300 vehicle service. Ola Consumer (aka Ola Cabs) is fading. FlixBus was fined by the German court for misleading environmental claims on its Belgian website. Maxi Mobility, EV subscription and leasing solutions to taxi drivers, based in Italy, partners with UFOFLEET for omnichannel and fleet management solutions. Nigerian drivers launch SimpliRide, a subscription-model app, to compete with Uber and Bolt. 

Netherland-based umob partners with Lime, making its scooters available on its MaaS app. AllRide, a new MaaS app, has added Miles to its offer.  

What happens when careers get derailed? 

A very good uni friend of mine, Dan Gus, flew to London back in 2008 to attend a highly prestigious analyst course at Lehman Brothers. It turned out to be the very last analyst class, with the 2008 stock market crash devastating? their career in finance. 15 years later he went back to speak to his former class - to discover what effect Lehman’s demise had on 100 young promising talents. The result - a book called “The Last Lehman Brothers Analyst Class : The untold story of Lehman's 2008 analyst class - Banking's lost generation”. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

 GreenMobility 2024 preliminary numbers:

• Revenue up 72% YoY to ±€17.35M (DKK 129.5M)

• EBITDA ±€4.8M (DKK 35.8M), up from DKK 5.2M in 2023

• Net profit €1.3M (DKK 9.7M) - first positive annual net profit 

• 2025 guidance: 7-13% revenue growth and 20-40% EBITDA growth

The partnership between MOL Limo (car-sharing) and Oszkár carpooling is continuing. The  partnership allows people that rent a MOL car “for longer trips” to advertise their ride on the Oszkár car-pooling platform; Oszkár passengers can then share the ride and cost with the “original” MOL drivers. Also MOL Limo increases prices for under 60 minutes trips. 

Kinto expands across Denmark, offering more car-related (share, rent, pool) mobility service; and is pausing its bike pilot scheme. Getmancar, car sharing, expands in Ukraine in a franchise model. Voltio, by Mutua Madrileña, reaches a fleet size of 1,000 cars. Loopit, subscription/rental SaaS solution, partners with Aero Corporation, a US regional franchise of Avis, to offer subscription services. Socar launches a driving score challenge to promote safe driving in South Korea; riders need to score over 80 to enter a raffle for prizes. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Voi 2024 numbers show greater vehicle utilisation & revenue and a better bottom line. Still, the company is in the red. 

• Net revenue €132.8M, up 12.7% from 2023

• Greater utilisation: trips per vehicle per day up to 2.2, from 2.11

• Leading to increased net revenue per vehicle/day €3.91, up from €3.64

• Adjusted EBITDA €17.2M (-€1.7M in 2023)

• Adjusted EBIT €0.1M (-€31.1M)

• EBIT -€3.3M  (-€38.1M)

• Loss before tax: -€22.7M (-€51.8M)

• Cash flow positive, growing reserves by €48M

Per Voi, the results have to do with internal improvements, as well as a more relaxed competitive environment and better municipal ecosystems. For the full report. 

Lime back in Spoken. The contract with the city sees Lime pay the city $17,000 per year + $0.75 per vehicle per day. In 2023, the city earned $186,000 from Lime. 

Hoppy deploys in Athens, joining RideMovi, Lime, hop and Hopp. The company expects another big player to enter Athens, which will make for 6! Micromobility operators, of those three have very similar brand names… 😬. Barcelona has 7 operators and it is a mess. 

Beam Mobility launches scooter service on South Korea's Supermove, government backed-MaaS platform. In Antwerp, Belgium, Velo recorded 7.16 million rides in 2024, up 9% YoY, with a fleet of ±4,400 bikes. Bolt launches 1,000 scooters in Antwerp after Poppy left the market. Lime and Voi are the two other competitors in the city. Bird back in Vernon, replacing Lime. Moby replaces Bolt in Wicklow County, Ireland. The Donkey Republic story of expansion and profitability - the company highlighted responsible growth and working with cities from day one. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

Future of delivery: 

Avride’s delivery bots are live in Japan - partnering with Rakuten for meal and grocery deliveries to neighborhoods in Tokyo. 

Baemin deployed delivery bots in South Korea for grocery deliveries, in partnership with B Mart supermarket chain. “Dilly” (the robots) can carry 20kg and travel at roughly 5.5km/hour (3.3 miles/hour). On average, each delivery is expected to take 30 minutes. 

Just Eat Takeaway launches drone delivery in Dublin, partnering with Manna Drones. 

M&A activity:

Grab acquires Malaysian supermarket chain Everrise, a retailer with 19 stores, thus strengthening its grocery delivery capabilities in the country. This isn’t Grab’s 1st acquisition in the field - it acquired a majority stake in Jaya Grocer Holdings Sdn Bhd, a leading mass-premium supermarket chain in Malaysia, two years ago.

Talabat acquires Instashop, grocery deliveries, for $32M from parent company Delivery Hero,  as part of a restructuring. Instashop will continue to operate as an independent brand under Talabat’s grocery and retail vertical. 

Note that the amount paid reflects Instashop’s capital amount rather than its fair value; Instashop was acquired by Delivery Hero back in 2020 for $360M, and while we have seen substantial devaluation of companies in the delivery field, those operating in the UAE have not experienced such devaluations. 

And

Evermile is an e-commerce platform for retail SMEs, allowing easier ordering, customer management and delivery operations. Now, data from the platform is being used to determine demand in new areas. Makes sense. 

E-commerce delivery Relay raises $35M to disrupt home delivery market. Read from the investors. 

GrubHub lays off 500 employees, more than 20% of its workforce, as part of the post-Wonder acquisition new “mealtime” focus.

The Indian government is pursuing an antitrust investigation over potential predatory pricing tactics by Swiggy, Zomato and Zepto.  

Careem partners with Bustanica, vertical farm, to deliver fresh produce. 

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

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Waymo now has over 200,000 robotaxi rides per week. Back in August the company had “only” 100,000 rides per week. 

A Waymo Zeekr without camouflage (video). 

A recent survey (n=1,095) found that 61% of the population do not trust self-driving vehicles and that 53% said they will not ride in one. 

Meanwhile, in the real world: 

Uber launches in Austin, in partnership with Waymo. Requesting rides will be as usual, with riders occasionally matching with an autonomous ride at no additional cost. Riders will be able to decline an AV, and ask for a human-driven ride instead, at no extra cost. Data from AV cancellation requests will be super interesting, as it will be a live experiment on AV true sentiment. Riders can also edit preferences within the Uber app to prefer AVs - did I hear “percentage of early adopters”? 

Tesla will probably soon join in Austin, flying solo, in what would be the most interesting head-to-head in (the short) robotaxi history. 

Tesla applies for a ride-hailing license (“transportation charter-party carrier permit”) in California. This is a prerequisite for operating robotaxis in the state, which requires additional licenses. It is interesting to see if Tesla waits for a full licensing to operate robotaxis, or would start a ride-hailing service with human (safety) drivers, to gain much needed fleet operating experience. TBC. 

Avride partners with Hyundai to expand robotaxi fleet. The deal will see the companies jointly develop and operate self-driving vehicles. Hyundai is also the main investor for Motional, which is still working on L4 autonomy, despite restructuring and downsizing after Aptiv decided not to continue investing, back in early 2024. 

Wayve expands into Germany, with a new testing and development hub in the Stuttgart region. Since receiving a $1 billion investment back in May 2024, UK-founded Wayve had expanded into the US and now to Germany. 

Renault launches L4 commercial shuttle service, partnering with WeRide, Beti Automated Mobility and Macif. The service is offered on a 3.3km stretch of road between a business park’s centre and a rail station. This is Europe’s 1st commercial robotaxi service. 

Also Renault to test self-driving minibus for five days in Barcelona, with WeRide. And on the other side of the world, WeRide approved commercial robotaxi service in Beijing. 

DiDi’s self-driving unit seeks “several hundred million dollars” in new funds, at a $5 billion valuation. The company has circa 200 autonomous vehicles spread in a number of Chinese cities. The market is “hot” right now, with WeRide and Pony.ai lately completing successful IPOs. 

Volkswagen and MOIA are testing the ID. Buzz autonomous vehicle in Oslo, to better understand vehicle behaviour in extreme cold conditions. 

☎️ Sway Mobility and Mapless AI launched Corktown Carshare, a tele-operated electric vehicle car-sharing pilot program in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. Elmo teledrives over 3,400 km - from Barcelona to Helsinki - with circa 100ms latency (o.1 second). 

Flying cars 🚁

Volocopter: progressed into formal insolvency proceedings, allowing the court-appointed administrator more time to find buyers -> lays off 450 employees in the process -> might have found an investor - Diamond Aircraft - an Australian-based Chinese-owned aircraft manufacturer. TBC. 

EHang completes first unmanned eVTOL flight in Europe, as part of the European Union’s U-ELCOME (U-space European Common Deployment) programme. The flight, performed in Spain, saw the EH216-S fly through an air corridor alongside 12 drones performing tasks such as surveillance and cargo transport. EHang creates a research hub for low-altitude flight safety in Spain, in partnership with universities from Spain and China. Also EHang partners with JAC Motors and Guoxian Holdings to build an eVTOL manufacturing base in Hefei, China. 

Archer Q4 letter to shareholders highlights: 

• Abu Dhabi to be 1st commercialisation customer

• Starting production, expecting 10 vehicles to be completed in 2025

• “Outsized defense opportunity” 

Wisk Aero unveil their autonomous air taxi prototype, promising faster commutes under $10 per mile (video). 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Musk’s DOGE leadership doesn’t do Tesla good - the company has seen stocks down and sales in Europe plummeting. DOGE was officially set up January 20th, when Trump came into power, but it was “in the air” ever since Trump won the Elections in November 2024. Public sentiment against Musk isn’t the only reason for Tesla's poor stock market performance -  increasing competition has to do with it as well - but one cannot ignore the anger people are feeling toward Musk, whose name is synonymous with Tesla. 

Don’t think that Musk deeply cares about Tesla position right now- he is too rich and has too many interests to worry about Tesla, whose future is in robotaxis anyway. 

Ola Electric to cut 1,000 jobs, roughly 25% of workforce, “due to restructuring and automation”.  The company, which has roughly a ⅓ of the electric two-wheeler segment, is still trying to get to profitability. 

And Ola’s CEO introduces a weekly email report - similar to what Musk has been doing with DOGE. Employees are asked to send 3-5 bullet points of completed tasks to their direct managers and to [email protected]. 

Canoo’s CEO is buying the bankrupt EV startup's assets with $4M in cash. It is not clear what future plans are.

Gig economy 💰

DooDash to pay New York workers $16.75M to settle a lawsuit over using their tips to cover wages. 

In other news 📰

“We will never, ever make this mistake any more. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. No guessing any more. There's feedback, it's real, and people love this. Honestly, it's a car. It's not a phone: it's a car”. – VW’s Chief on Design on going back to buttons. 

Cafler raises $11M; funds will be used to boost its car repair and maintenance services business.

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

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Alexandra CAUBET is the new CEO @ Kadensis. 

August Grønli is the new General Manager Norway @ Getaround. 

Bassem El-Rahimy is the new VP & Managing Director @ Turo Canada. 

Eyal Avidov is the new Chief Executive Officer @ Car4Customer. 

Freya Hofmann is the new Senior Product Manager @ HOLON. 

Gideon Barazovsky is the new VP of Product Engineering @ Aerolane. 

Glen Fry is the new Product Lead @ Transport for Greater Manchester. 

Jarno Pajunen is the new Director, Partnerships & Fleet Management @ Secto Automotive. 

Lucie Campbell is the new Senior Marketing Officer @ West Midlands Combined Authority. 

Lukas Teschner is the new Strategy & Operations Principal @ Via Germany. 

Nicolas Prévitali is the new Director, Drivers Growth & Operations @ Uber.

Oz Choudhri is the new Strategic Sales Director for Public Sector Europe @ Enterprise Mobility. 

Simon Pickett is the new Head of Data and Technology @ Source EV. 

Thiagarajan (Iyer) Krishnamurthy is the new Group Product Manager @ Zepto. 

Urška Skrt is the new Lead Transport & Mobility, Industrial Transformation pathway @ WBCSD.

Congrats and good luck!

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