Zepto ($665M), Wabbi ($200M) and Tier IV ($54M) raise, Chapter 11 for Fisker and CoachUSA, Getir restructures

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility".  This week highlighting the Anti-Bias Strategy Review solution. 

Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

🇵🇱New ride-hailing regulation in Poland has reduced driver numbers by roughly 20%, affecting Bolt (26%), Uber (20%) and Freenow (15%). The new regulation mandates that drivers have a Polish driver licence, and those who do not, have to pass a theory test. In addition, drivers from outside the EU or RFTA - i.e. Ukraine, Belarus or Georgia - will have to live in Poland for a minimum of 185 days before applying for a licence. Experts expect prices to increase by up to 50%. 

🇭🇺 A look at Budapest, Hungary, with insights from Tamas GABOR. Budapest is a taxi-regulated market, with an estimated 5,500 vehicles and €24M in annual revenue. Bolt has 45% of the market, local Főtaxi working with Uber with 34%, and five other companies sharing 20% of the market. A rising player is Taxim, which in the past years completed two acquisitions. Past weeks have also seen Uber go into an aggressive marketing campaign, in the goal of gaining market share. 

In Gandaki province, Nepal 🇳🇵, the local government is banning ride-hailing. The list of suppliers include Indrive, Pathao, Taximandu and others. Toronto 🇨🇦 is looking to limit the number of ride-hailing drivers in the city.  

Uber officially launches in Luxembourg, offering rides via professional taxi fleets. Uber expands EV service to Kolkata. Uber plans to launch in Aberdeen, Scotland, in August. SIXT expands ride-hailing in North America by integrating Blacklane. 

South Africa 🇿🇦 legalises ride-hailing, allowing companies to register for operating licences. Up to now the likes of Uber and Bolt have operated in a grey legal area, utilising charter permits and metre taxi operating licences. Phuket, Thailand 🇹🇭, is planning to lift ban on registering new app taxis. Iraq 🇮🇶 to register all taxis in a digital system. 

Last week I attended a Bus Centre of Excellence event, focused on DRT. While there, I heard Adele Everley-Wearing, Strategic Lead Passenger Transport at Milton Keynes City Council, speaking about how successfully they cut 11 fixed bus routes in favour of an all-DRT service (powered by Via), which has lowered cost by circa £10 per rider, while maintaining 85% 1st try seat-availability. Spare launches its 1st UK service with West Sussex County Council. Wiltshire DRT, powered by Ioki, launched in August 2023 and saw over a 30% increase in patronage compared with the previous network it replaced. Roger French writes on East Sussex and West Sussex DRT. 

Coach USA, owner of the Megabus brand and a number of commuter routes, goes into chapter 11. Declining rider numbers during and post-pandemic, together with increasing fuel, insurance and labour costs, brought the company to debt of over $300M. In April 2019 Stagecoach sold the company to private equity Variant Equity Advisors, which are now selling the company’s assets to PE Renco Group and to ABC Buses, amongst others. 

Grab’s 2023 ESG report focuses on employment opportunities for drivers and on the switch to electric vehicles. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Traficar launches Spot, a service allowing ordering a car to a specific location, for now the service is available in six airports across Poland. Socar partners with Naver, the “Google” of South Korea, to allow Socar’s car-sharing via Naver’s channels. Zoomcar partners with Air India Express, enabling Zoomcar rental via the airliner’s digital channels. Weeve, EV gig-economy vehicle rentals, expands to Western Canada. Freenow integrates car rentals in Milan, from operators such as Avis, Hertz and Europcar. 

BVLRA rental report 2024. Key takeaways: 

• 48% of rentals are for day-to-day activities such as healthcare, childcare and education; work purposes rentals with 28% and leisure and holidays 15%

• 58% of car hire and 82% of van hire are business customers

• A third of rental activity includes also multimodal travel

CityBee fined €103,000 for a data breach going back to 2021. The company is active in  Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, operating over 2,000 vehicles and serving over 800,000 clients.  

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Beryl bike share scheme rolled out in Worcester. Voi set to replace Beryl as Southampton e-bike operator. Oman pilots scooters. 

Shared mobility taxation. 

I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions. Interested in discussing mobility? Let’s set up a half-hour coffee chat. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

Zepto raises $665M at a $3.6 billion valuation, up from 1.4 billion last year. In India, rapid deliveries are going from strength to strength, thanks to a culture of buying hyper-locally. The company will use the funds to expand its dark store reach. Zepto aims to IPO in 2025. 

Zomato is in discussions to acquire fintech Paytm’s movies and ticketing business, for an estimated $200M. 

Getir will be restructured to two different companies: one focusing on rapid-deliveries in Turkey, controlled by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi state investment fund, which will inject an additional $250 into the restructuring, and will be led by Batuhan Gultakan. The other focused on other assets such as ride-hailing, led by Getir’s founder Nazim Salur. More news on this to be out this week, but the gist is that Mubadala were able to take control.

Uber UK launches courier pick and pack - in which UberEats gig-workers, not store staff, collect items. Uber has developed a solution which allows couriers in-app aisle guidance; enables real-time communication with customers; allows for active editing of orders, including substitution; and provides a pre-authorised payment method. This solution will allow Uber to tap into smaller supermarkets to fulfil orders, increasing reach. 

Deliveroo launches invitation-only ‘Diamond Plus’ subscription, allowing users to order from high-end restaurants and specialist grocery stores; receive priority delivery; full refunds if items are over 10 minutes late; a 10% refund on orders; and invitation to foodie events; for a subscription price of £19.99 per month. 

In Ukraine, Glovo delivery service grew by 23% from its pre-war indicators. The company is active in 37 Ukrainian cities. Wolt launches Wolt Capital, a new merchant financing service, in partnership with fintech Finmid. The solution is Live in Sweden, Poland, Finland and Denmark. Drone delivery startup Skye Air raises $4M. Cartwheel, delivery management software, raised $1.5M. Yogiyo to begin autonomous robot delivery tests in August, in partnership with Neubility. 

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Wabbi, long-haul autonomous trucks, raises a $200M series B round; plans to put its first fully autonomous commercial trucks on Texas roads in 2025. 

TIER IV, autonomous vehicles, extends its Series B funding with another $54M, bringing the total round to $132M. Funds will be used to further develop L4 capabilities. Suzuki was a part of the round, and the companies now partner on autonomous technology. 

Tesla’s robotaxi to be unveiled on August 8, 2024. Musk declared that "the vehicle is going to result in a cost per mile cheaper than a subsidized bus ticket"; keep in mind that tickets in the US can reach as much as $30. Meanwhile, a self-driving Tesla slams (video) into a police car in California. 

The Cruise October 2nd accident - in a 15-pages very detailed analysis. Cruise agrees to pay a $112,500 fine over failing to provide full information about the October 2 accident. By settling, the company is closer to re-launch in California. 

South Korean Bitsensing raises $25M for its 4D imaging radar. The company is looking to expand internationally via partnerships. Applied Intuition, AV software supplier for trucking, construction, mining, agriculture and defence, announced its new off-road autonomy stack solution. China approves autonomous driving startup Momenta's US IPO. An account of autonomous technology in China - safety is less of a concern when you're after for global dominance. 

WeRide to test Robosweepers in Singapore by the end of 2024. 

Flying cars 🚁

Archer signs MOU with Signature Aviation to electrify and access its network of over 200 private airport terminals. The partners intend to use BETA Technologies rapid chargers. Archer successfully completed transition flying at a speed of over 100 mph. Joby receives FAA Authorization for its Air Taxi Software, ElevateOS. Wisk partners with Houston Airports to jointly assess locations for development of vertiport infrastructure. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

This section is dedicated to EV OEMs - which have clearly underperformed so far. 

The End - Fisker files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This doesn’t come as a surprise and has been covered here extensively. Creditors are already fighting over available assets. 

CAKE, EV bikes, is planning a comeback from its February bankruptcy. The company has been acquired by Brages Holding AS, a car retailer based in Norway, which is working on a business plan for the business. 

Ford is building a low-cost EV, recruiting people while utilising the market layoffs. The product should be Ford’s answer to Chinese brands and a possible affordable Tesla.  

Ola Electric receives regulatory approval to go ahead with its $660M IPO. 

Zapp EV, maker of two-wheeler bikes, published H1/24 results. Highlights:

• Rolling out in India

• Operating loss of $3.1M compared to $3.9M YoY

• IFRS net loss of $5M, compared to $8.6M YoY

Augustin Friede on OEMs and Shared Mobility: 

In other news 📰

Moovit lays off 10%, circa 25 employees. The company looks for profitability, and expects to achieve positive cash flow from operations this year. Most of the company’s revenue comes from advertising, with some revenue from users’ subscriptions and from government contracts. 

Tern AI develops IDPS - Independently Derived Positioning System - and has just raised $4.4M to do so. Rather than relying on GPS signals, Tern AI’s solution ingests vehicle and phone sensor data in real time, as well as third-party map data, to provide a consistent and precise position. Commercial launch expected in September. 

Ali Griswold looks into why congestion prices failed in NYC: 1() city vs. state, (2) congestion pricing had no champion and (3) failure to communicate effectively to the public. For more. 

I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions. Interested in discussing mobility? Let’s set up a half-hour coffee chat. 

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Eyal Blum is the new Chief Business Officer @ ZOOZ Power. 

Glenn Lyons is the new President @ Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT). 

Guillaume Naegelen is the new Business Manager Europe - EV charging solutions @ Mobilize. 

JC Porter joined the Board of Directors @ International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI). 

Pete Costello is the Business Development Manager @ Information Logistics. 

Rainer Steinschaden is the new Location manager @ E.ON Drive Infrastructure. 

Congrats and good luck!