- #movingpeople
- Posts
- Wonder buys Grubhub for (only) $650M, VW-Rivian partnership deepens and a troubled European eVTOL industry
Wonder buys Grubhub for (only) $650M, VW-Rivian partnership deepens and a troubled European eVTOL industry
This week on #movingpeople
Barak Sas
November 18, 2024
In partnership with
#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility", focused on growth.
Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT 🚙🚐
Grab reports Q3 (unaudited) results:
42 million Monthly Transacting Users
On-demand GMV grew 15% YoY to $4.7 billion
Revenue grew 17% YoY to $716M (15.3% of GMV)
Adjusted EBITDA up $62M to $90M - and net profit of $15M
Delivery brought in 63.6% of GMV and 53% of revenue; mobility brought in 36.3% of GMV and 37.8% of revenue. The rest from financial services
For the Earning Call presentation
The company improved its 2024 forecast and saw its shares go up
Bolt reports €2 billion annual revenue, is active in 50 countries and is #1 in 20 of those. IPO expected in 2025. Lalamove launches in Malaysia, following Bolt. DiDi expands in Egypt. Newmo, taxi & ride-hailing founded in early 2024 in Japan, raises $4.5M, bringing the total to $13M. Umbo, Kosovo-based dispatch and fleet management software, adds another taxi company to its portfolio. InDrive launches Comfort in Nepal. Uber launches Teens and XXL in Hong Kong and Uber introduces safer, easier and fairer features in India.
Nemi celebrates 5 years with the launch of 3 new DRT lines in Vall de Ribes, Spain. RideCo launches a multimodal transit solution in Tulsa, Oklahoma - rides can book microtransit, fixed routes and paratransit from the same app. Liftango in Cachoeirinha, Brazil, performing 8,000 rides in October. Wayla off to a good start in Milan.
Global Public Transit Index by mosaiq. The company collects 2.5 billion data points every month and spotlights “being on time”.
Ridenear is growing fast and looking to raise more funds. Ridenar is an all-in-1 taxi & ride-hailing solution, allowing users to compare prices and get the quickest rides possible. Next up: B2B and the US. Download the app and try for yourself (iOS, Android). If you’d like to hear more, reach out to Miraskar Mirakhmedov.
Car Sharing/renting 🚗
Volvo-On-Demand shuts down due to “profitability reasons as part of a group-wide effort to optimize costs”. The solution has circa 1,200 vehicles and 200,000 registered users (+166 registered users per vehicle) and will be available up to mid-January 2025.
Traficar celebrates 8 years - the company has 5,000 vehicles across 28 cities in Poland. Amovens, Spanish P2P car-sharing, generated €3M in Madrid last year. Hiyacar appointed to run carshare club in the Lancaster district (UK).
Micromobility 🚲🛴
Voi introduces Activity Score - benefit scheme for good parking - allowing top “parkers” to enjoy easier parking and € credits. nextbike expands across Europe.
Delivery 🍽🧺
Wonder acquired Grubhub from Just Eat for $650M. JustEat has been trying to offload Grubhub at least since April 2022, after buying the business for $7.3 billion in 2020. Wonder, which started as a food delivery business in 2018, pivoted since to operating premium delivery-focused restaurants in the Northeast US. Wonder is planning for a “super-app for mealtime”, integrating Grubhub into its solution.
Talabat releases IPO prospectus. Talabat, which operates in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, is expected to be valued at $12-$14.4 billion - more than the +$11.7 billion that its parent - Delivery Hero - is valued at. Post IPO, Delivery Hero will keep 85% of Talabat.
Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡
Waymo available to the general public in Los Angeles. No more waiting lists. Zoox is testing on public roads in San Francisco and the Las Vegas Strip. Baidu applies to launch autonomous vehicle trials in Hong Kong. Pony.ai is looking to raise up to $348M in its US IPO, at a $4.5 billion valuation. The company operates robotaxis in China. Cruise is fined another $500,000 for the Oct. 2nd 2023 accident - this time for filing a false report, submitted back then.
Elmo gets approval for driverless teledriving at higher speeds from the Estonian Transport Administration.
Flying cars 🚁
European companies - Lilium, Volocopter and Vertical Aerospace face funding challenges - while EHang demonstrates its leadership in the eVTOL space with a series of positive announcements.
EHang completes first solid-state battery test in a pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL, flying for 48 minutes. The company claims that this battery technology will improve endurance by 60% to 90%. EHang completes its debut passenger flights in Thailand. The company plans to launch commercial flights in the country in 2025. EHang Partners with Sunriver to expand the Chinese cultural tourism market with a purchase plan for 50 units of EH216-S. EHang announces over $22M PIPE Investment from strategic investors.
Vertical Aerospace performed an untethered flight for its VX4 aircraft. Last week the company had a business update call (presentation) in which the company presented its 2030 strategy - achieving UK certification by 2028 - but meanwhile cash flow challenges haunt the company.
Geely is reportedly considering taking over Volocopter - buying 85% of shares for $95M. This would see Volocopter valued at $110M, down from a high of $1.9 billion in 2022. Not a good time to be a German eVTOL company.
Airbus’s electric air taxi made its first flight. ePlane raises $14M to launch India’s first flying taxi. Joby announces beginning of work on 1st Dubi vertiport. Meet Invo Station, your friendly eVTOL.
OEMs 🛺⚡️
The Volkswagen - Rivian partnership deepens, with VW upping investment to $5.8 billion and setting up a 50-50 joint venture focused on electrical architecture and software for EVs. With this move, VW hopes to catch up on the SDV capabilities that Cariad, its software arm, wasn’t able to deliver.
ZF to close its CVC unit, ZF Ventures?
Stella (🚲), Netherlands e-bikes, declares bankruptcy. The company had 440 employees and 50 retail centers.
Bumper, a vehicle payment and analytics platform based in the UK, completed the purchase of AutoBI, a provider of business intelligence tools tailored for auto retailers and OEMs.
Gig economy 💰
DoorDash settles to pay $11.25M over tip misallocations in Illinois; tips were used to reduce the amount paid to drivers.
In other news 📰
For my readers in Kenya - e-mobility R&D call.
Drone manufacturer Skydio raises $170M extension round, adding to the $230M Series E it closed early last year.
Vecna Robotics, warehouse robots, raises $14.5M and chooses Karl Iagnemma, former Motional CEO, to lead the company.
Neom replaces CEO amid reports of delays and questions over economic viability.
Liverpool Street (in London) is the UK's busiest train station, with 80.4 million entries and exits in the year ending March 2023.
The future of gas stations is a more premium retail experience?
I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions.
People 🧑🤝🧑
Alex Hornby is the new Commercial & Customer Director @ Northern.
Andy Fitzmaurice is the new Account Executive @ NECTURE.
Eddie Roberts is the new Senior Operations Manager @ FREENOW.
Emmanuel Varenne is the new Head of Strategy @ FLEXIS S.A.S.
Krysia Kristina Solheim is the new Group COO @ Vélogik.
Mike Evans-Ford is the new Country Manager - UK & Ireland @ Transit.
Ryan Knapp is the new Head of Business Development, North America @ Distribusion Technologies.
Sybille Jones is the new Director Brand and Product @ Next Mobility Labs.
Thank you for reading #movingpeople. If you like what you're reading, please share it with your friends and colleagues so they can benefit from it too.
This isn’t traditional business news
Welcome to Morning Brew—the free newsletter designed to keep you in the know on the business news impacting your career, company, and life—in a way you didn’t know you needed.
Note: this isn’t traditional business news. Morning Brew’s approach cuts through the noise and bore of classic business media, opting for short writeups, witty jokes, and above all—presenting the facts.
Save time, actually enjoy business news, and join over 4 million professionals reading daily.