Wayve in the US, Lilium into self-administration and ComfortDelGro acquires Addison Lee

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Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

The big story in the UK is the acquisition of Addison Lee by Singapore-based ComfortDelgro for £269M (±$350M). Addison Lee is one of the UK's leading ground transport providers, with a fleet of 5,000 cars and 7,500 drivers operating PHV and Black Cabs in greater London. Addison Lee was founded in 1975 and became a dominant ground transport player; was sold to a PE in 2013, which was not successful at creating value; and sold back to the founder's family and other investors in 2020, on the eve of the pandemic. ComfortDelgro already has a large presence in the UK&I, from public transport & coaches to PHV & Black Cabs to transport software, and in February this year also added CMAC, a transport aggregator, in a £80M acquisition. 

Saudi Arabia to trial Hydrogen-powered taxis, using Toyota Mirai vehicles. There aren’t enough electric vehicles in India. Uber increases global EV fleet. 

Odisha Yatri is a new ride-hailing app initiated by the state of Odisha (Yatri means “traveller”) which will run on the ONDC platform. The app will be built by the same company that brought Namma Yatri to India. Careem launches Careem Plus subscription program in Kuwait. Shesha was launched in South Africa five months ago by local taxi unions, as an answer to Uber and Bolt entry into the country, which introduced competition and brought down taxi prices. It turns out that the violent taxi ways continue, with Shesha’s representatives intimidating drivers and passengers. Advance Mobility raises $3M - the company manages fleets (vehicles & drivers) on platforms such as Uber. LibertyBus, a part of Tower Transit UK which is a part of Australian Kelsian Group, will operate public bus services in Jersey for the next 10 years.

CoMotion LA is just a few weeks from now. During November 12-14th we will explore  multimodality, decarbonised mobility, innovation and data & digital tools across the mobility industry. 

🔍 Join CoMotion to experience live demos and workshops, network, learn from thought leaders, network (again), and explore start-ups. And - I have a link with 25% off, so enjoy CoMotion. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Kyte, rental car start-up, cuts workforce in half and shrinks operations to focus only on two markets: San Francisco and New York, which account for 70% of the company’s revenue (Kyte is leaving Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Seattle and Los Angeles). The company’s goal is to reach profitability in the next 18 months. Founded in 2019, Kyte to date has raised $549M, most of it in debt financing to facilitate fleet expansion. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Luup, Japanese micromobility operator, raises ±$19.7M (3 billion Yen) through debt restructuring. Funds will be used to expand operations in Japan. 

Voi 2023 finances: 

• Revenue up 17.3% to €126.6M

• Germany accounted for 35% of revenue; followed by Sweden and the UK with 17.6% each; the remaining 27.5% is from “others”. 

• Net loss of €52.2M, improved from a €77M loss the previous year

• Voi in Germany - average revenue per vehicle per day: €2.58 (or circa €940 annual revenue)

• For more. 

The UK's Department for Transport (DfT) opens an “expression of interest process”  for local authorities wishing to pilot e-scooters. There are currently 22 regions experimenting with e-scooters, and new regions could be added to the pilot, which is to end in May 2026. Voi to replace Zipp Mobility in Buckinghamshire. 

I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions. Interested in discussing mobility?

Delivery 🍽🧺

In Uzbekistan, Yandex to acquire some of the assets of local delivery service Express24, strengthening Yandex’s delivery offer in the country. 

Zomato reports Q2 results: 

• Revenue from operations at ±$570M (₹4,799 crore), up 68%

• Net profit $20.94 (₹176 crore), up 389% - but still below analyst expectations. This is due to the company’s investment in its dark store network. 

• The company approved a fundraise of $1 billion (₹8,500 crore) - this will be used to expand in the competition-heavy Indian market

Speaking of competition: Swiggy introduces the “Seal”, an initiative to enhance the food quality standards and hygiene practices of partner restaurants. Also Swiggy introduces “International Login”, allowing people living outside of India to order food for people back in India and to make table reservations via Dineout. And, Meituan may have sold $200M of Swiggy in a secondary deal. 

Meituan launches drone delivery service at Futian Port. The 10-minute service, accepting Hong Kong dollars, is available in  designated drop-off points. Amazon and Grubhub announce the wide-scale deployment of Amazon Key integration, offering deliveries to access-restricted residential communities and buildings. Doordash improves safety for alcohol deliveries. UPS tests e-bike deliveries In Paris. 

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

See this opportunity - The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has an RFI out for autonomous transportation in the Newark Airport.

Wayve expands to the US, starting tests and opening an office in San Francisco. This move enables Wayve to train their AI on new infrastructure and driving culture (and driving on the right!); be closer to partners such as Uber, Microsoft and NVIDIA; and develop, with automakers, the L2+ product.  

I think EU regulators should do more to facilitate development of autonomous vehicles in Europe, as successful European start-ups such as Vay and Wayve prefer the US as a launchpad. 

In Q3/24, Cruise lost $435M. When asked about Cruise, GM’s CEO said: “…we’ll be gated by safety, but we hope and we’re working hard to get there by the end of the year”. It has been a year now since Cruise halted all autonomous operations. The company has test vehicles in Arizona and Texas, and reportedly has removed safety drivers from vehicles in Houston (but they now sit in the passenger seat). 

WeRide debuts on Nasdaq at $15.5 and sees share price rise. The company raised a total of $440.5M, $320.5M in private placement and $120M from the public. Market cap is now circa $4.7 billion. This IPO is even more interesting than usual - because it is of a Chinese company - and could signal future Chinese companies trading in the US (remember DiDi). 

Speaking of - Didi Autonomous Driving completed a C-round financing of $298M, led by GAC Group with participation from DiDi. 

Waymo completed the raise of $5.6 billion, bringing the total to a “mere” $11.1 billion in funding. Led by parent Alphabet, funds will go toward advancing autonomous driving. 

Pony.ai opens Luxembourg R&D centre. Ush joins PAVE Europe. Beijing to expand autonomous driving demo zone to 3,000 square kilometres. Lidwave raises $10M to improve machine vision with on-chip 4D LiDAR. 

Robotaxis Are No Friend of Public Transportation by David Zipper. Zipper thinks that “the robotaxi industry’s embrace of public transportation conceals a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. An example of San Francisco is given in the article - according to a 2022 study of the region, just 0.4% of the region’s transit journeys included a ride-hail trip. A good long read.

Flying cars 🚁

Lilium files for self-administration of German subsidiaries, following the inability to raise a government loan. This move allows the company time to evaluate the options before it, from further investment to selling of assets to a potential €219 loan from the French government. 

“Self-administration… aims to preserve and continue the business that is the subject of the proceedings. Management would retain control and would continue operating the business under the supervision of a custodian. The procedure is often used to initiate investment by new parties or a process to sell the company’s assets and/or business as a whole. In Germany, the procedure is generally perceived as providing an improved chance for a successful in-court business restructuring.” TBC. 

Meanwhile in the US, a great leap forward for eVTOLS. The Federal Aviation Administration published the final “Powered lift” (eVTOL) regulations, creating a new aircraft category and paving the way to wide(r) spread usage. The new category combines both vertical takeoff/landing with fixed-winged flight; these regulations determine the training, operations and maintenance of the “Powered lift” category, in a 880 pages document. 

Joby to sell up to $200M of its shares in a public offering to support the launch of commercial services in 2025. The recent FAA ruling should help Joby achieve its goals. Also, Utah to experiment with eVTOLs. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Tesla delivered a good Q3 update, sees shares soar by >25%, whipping out the losses from the “We, Robot” event and adding more some. The market was mostly impressed with the operational improvement, both in manufacturing costs and freight expenses, which sent gross margin (excluding credits) up to 17.05% from 14.7% the prior quarter. 

GM compared to Tesla, in seven charts. How Apple worked with BYD to develop its secretive car project, bringing in Apple’s advanced battery packs and heat management and helping BYD develop into what it is today. Einride partners with PepsiCo to electrify US Frito-Lay food routes. 

Zero Motorcycles, an EV player, raised $120M. Founded 20 years ago, the company has raised $500M over the years.

Gig economy 💰

The Federal Trade Commission (US) fines Lyft with a $2.1M penalty for luring drivers with false earnings claims, going back to claims the company made in 2021-2022. 

How migrant gig-workers in South Africa protect themselves. 

In other news 📰

It takes guts - Wayne Ting, Lime’s founder and CEO - endorsing Kamala Harris. The US elections are in a week from now (November 4th) and I’m sure we’re all waiting to learn who the winner is. 

France was shocked last week. Paul Varry, aged 27, was run over by a SUV driver, road raged after an altercation between the two, after the SUV driver was driving over a cycling path. The driver was charged with murder. Video article (in French). 

Resurge Growth Partners is introducing an investment vehicle “focused on helping companies caught between the venture capital and private equity worlds”. See more here. 

I love the what3words concept - but it doesn’t seem to generate money. In 2023, the company had revenue of £1.07M - and an operating loss of £20.6M. For the full report. 

Trisha Mehta interviewed me and other great experts for her thesis project on “2050 Mobility Futures”. Here is the result. 

Fisker accidentally hired a North Korean spy to work in its IT department. And to make matters even more interesting - Fisker was one of 300 US-based companies caught up in a North Korean spy operation. 

I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions. Interested in discussing mobility?

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Dan Schlaff is the new Client Relationship Executive - Federal Transportation @ Deloitte. 

Florent Barretis the new Operating Partner @ Shift4Good. 

Ofek Rotem is the new Full Stack Developer @ Autofleet. 

Saul Gold is the new Director of Sales @ High Lander. 

Svajūnas Aliukonis is the new Lithuania Country Manager @ Bolt.

Congrats and good luck!

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