Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT šš
Last week came the announcement, and this week Lyft started executing its mass layoffs. 26% of the workforce, roughly 1,072 employees, are affected. Another 250 open positions will not be filled. Back in November, Lyft laid off 13% of its workforce; that means that in those two rounds, 1 of 3 employees left the company! Iāve never personally experienced such massive layoffs, but Iām guessing it feels very weird walking in Lyftās offices these days. And, those who stayed will now be required to return to office, at least three days a week. Lyft has been WFH since the pandemic; now their CEO said that āthings just move faster when youāre face to faceā¦ (remote work) leading to isolation and eroding cultureā. I couldnāt agree more.
Mobility Cooperative is the largest car-sharing operator in Switzerland with over 177K members spread out across 500 cities and towns in Switzerland. In Zurich the company is launching an electric ride-hailing service with a focus on pooling rides, named i&any. The service is powered by ZFās dispatch and fleet management solution, SCALAR.
T3 Go, Chinese ride-hailing, has 200 million registered user in 112 cities, making it the #2 ride-hailing solution in China. The company plans to launch a travel super-app for young people, including features such as entertainment and restaurant search and ride-related features such as pet-friendly vehicle selection and ability to determine level of music/conversation.
Didi reports 19% revenue decrease in 2022, citing covid and regulatory challenges. Just a few months ago China lifted an 18 month app-store ban. Net loss was $3.44bn, down 52% YoY (i.e. better).
Chalo raised $23.8M, bringing the total to $84.6M. The company is present in 22 Indian cities and looks to expand.
Rydes, offering a corporate mobility budget, raised ā¬3.5M. The German company, founded in early 2021, offers a multi-transport solution for employees, from shared mobility to renting or leasing bikes & cars, fuel and charge cards, and public transport.
Freenow integrates to local and regional public transport throughout Germany. Bolt partners with black cabs in London. A booking fee of Ā£2 will come on top of the taxi fare. A North Carolina microtransit (DRT) service increases from 200 to 1,400 monthly rides. The service, powered by Moovit, sees 70% booking via app. Uride, ride-hailing in Canada, looks to expand to Victoria, again. First attempt was September 2022, but the company couldnāt get enough drivers ahead of the off-season.
A Roger French long read on Katch DRT in Suffolk, UK. Interestingly, the technology behind this service has been given to Flexiroute to develop (it's not ready yet, so only phone bookings right now), rather than awarding the contract to one of the many established companies operating in the UK. Possibly as a cost cutting measure.
Podcast on āHow to fix rural mobility in the UKā with Padamās Head Northern European Jack Holland. A very interesting listen about user behaviour with UK and European examples; funding schemes; long term PT planning and DRT effectiveness in peri-urban and rural environments. The podcast is hosted by Charles Pearce.
Sharing/renting šš“
Envoy Technologies, developer of communify-focused EV car-sharing platform, was acquired by Blink Charging, a US-based EV charging station operator, for $34M cash and stocks. Community focused means offering services to apartment buildings, hotels and workplaces.
Greach is a new Nigerian car-pooling company operating in Lagos. The company offers āprivateā (shared rides within a given organisation) or āpublicā offers, in a commission based or freemium business model.
Micromobility š²š“
Luup, Japanese micromobility, raised $30M, bringing total equity, debt and asset financing to $68M. This raise comes as scooter regulation is easing in Japan, in July allowing users to ride without driver licences or helmets. Luup wants to be able to create a nation-wide first/last mile solution to train stations, trains being a key component in the Japanese public transport system.
Human Forest raised Ā£12M - and will double its fleet in London. The company is aiming at entering four new boroughs soon.
Tier, Dott and Lime begin testing of universal warning alerts in London. The three companies are testing sounds developed by UCL and TfL. It remains a question on how pedestrians will respond to the new sounds. TBC.
Bewegen is a Canadian-based bike-share operator who went into bankruptcy and is now renegotiating contracts. Bewegen wants to continue to provide reservation and payment services, but not to do field work, e.g. rebalancing and battery swapping. Interesting if this new strategy would work, as other micromobility solutions manage a one-stop-shop solution.
Birmingham is welcoming a new micromobility operator - local UK company Beryl. In March Voi left the city, and now Beryl will come in on June 1st. The company runs >10 markets in the UK. Bird expanding fleet to 1,400 e-scooters in Kansas City for 2023 NFL Draft. The company is adding 500 scooters to meet peak demand. Revel bringing back mopeds to the Bronx, NYC. A year ago the company left the Bronx citing increasing thefts, and now is heading back, for now in a limited zone within the Bronx.
Delivery š½š§ŗ
Getir is in talks to acquire Flink. This is a major deal, as these two companies are the only two remaining pure rapid-delivery companies operating in Europe, with the exception of Zapp and GoPuff who operate in London and probably small local operators. Flink expects to be profitable in Germany in 2023 and France and Netherlands in 2024, and wishes to raise an additional $100M to fund the route to profitability. This is not a good time to raise for rapid-delivery companies; This potential acquisition would be a way to continue under a larger umbrella.
Meanwhile, Getir is leaving France - the company approached the Paris commercial court for receivership. Getir is currently working under three brands in France - Getir, Gorillas and Frichti. Recent regulation in France has been hard on dark stores; Getir statement mentions regulation as one of the causes for the decision.
Sifted longish read on āThe state of play in European speedy grocery: whoās left?ā: Getir leading Europe with 8 markets (I excluded France); Flink has 3 markets; both companies are head to head in Germany and the Netherlands. Zapp and Gopuff have operations in London only. These rapid delivery companies are facing challenges from post-pandemic behaviour change, macroeconomic environment affecting customer purchases, high fuel costs and competition from the likes of UberEats, Delivery Hero etc.
Delivery Hero 2022 results: operating in >70 countries, the company saw a 17% YoY in GMV and expects to be free-cash-flow positive in H2/23 (the good); 2022 adjusted EBITDA is a negative ā¬623M with operating loss at ā¬2.27bn (the bad); and for some reason It likes to use āadjusted-EBITDA as a percent of GMVā as a leading indicator in its reports (the what??).
US restaurant food delivery GMV market share, as of March 2023: DoorDash leading with 65%, followed by UberEats with 23% + Postmates 2%, Grubhub 9%.
Zomatoās Blinkit revised its pay structure and saw couriers leaving - as many as 1,000 out of 3,000 leaving (!), which caused 25% of the 370 dark stores in Delhi to shut down temporarily. BigBasket, Zepto and Instamart, Blinkitās competitors, are the winners out of this situation, which has been going on for a few weeks now.
Swiggy tests a one-hour delivery feature with its own new e-commerce platform Maxx. The pilot takes place in Bengaluru, offering categories such as electronics, pet care supplies, books, toys, home and kitchen appliances, and stationery items. It is rumoured that the company is getting ready to go public in September this year.
Wolt Israel is getting ready to disconnect circa 500 couriers, as it demands couriers to sign up as independent contractors with the government. Couriers were already working as independent contractors, but up to now could do so via a 3rd party agency; that agency is under tax evasion investigation (which has nothing to do with Wolt) and so Wolt wants them to register directly with the government. There are 15,000 couriers on the Wolt Israeli platform.
Hived, UK parcel delivery startup that uses all electric vehicles, raised Ā£10m Series A round. The company aims to build āthe worldās first large-scale sustainable parcel delivery networkā and is building its own tech in the process.
Coca Cola India buys a 15% stake in food order & delivery startup Thrive in a pre-money valuation of roughly $12.8M. Money will be used to be able to allow Thrive to compete with the Swiggy and Zomato duopoly.
Flyby Robotics launched a drone food delivery pilot near Phoenix, Arizona, working with four restaurants. In early April the company reported a $4M pre-seed raise.
Glovo has a new category - fashion. Launched in Madrid and Barcelona, the company is working with 40 brands in the fashion industry. Deliveries are within an average of 30 minutes. Getir explains the recent UK store closures: āoptimising our combined store network with Gorillas''. Deliveroo opens a new HOP (rapid-delivery) site with Asda in London.
Last week I reported on a UberEats-Zoomo partnership to support NYC couriers with safe and efficient e-bikes - and this week Grubhub and Joco announced a similar initiative, providing at least 500 gig delivery workers with access to e-bikes.
NYC is testing sustainable local delivery āmicrohubsā. These microhubs will have a designated space for trucks to unload, with e-cargo bikes carrying last mile deliveries. Today, 90% of deliveries are done via trucks, causing congestion and pollution. The pilot will start with 20 locations, expanding to phase two in mid 2024 and continuing to 2026.
Autonomous š¤
Cruise lost $561M in Q1/23 while expanding its fleet to 242 vehicles. Cruise now operates everywhere and 24/7 in San Francisco, for now to employees only. The company also opened up the service, allowing for people 13 or older to ride the autonomous vehicles (with an adult).
May Mobility launches Arizonaās first AV on-demand public transit service, in partnership with Via. The service is designed for adults 55 and older. Pony.ai expands its robotaxi safety driver-less rides. A permit has been obtained in the city of Guangzhou, the 2nd city to allow Pony.ai such permit after Beijing did so a year ago.
Aurora is ready to haul freight autonomously on public roads. The company has completed development; performed pilots with the likes of Uber Freight and FedEx; and has a commercial ready site in Texas. The company aims to launch commercial self-driving no-safety-driver operations to start by the end of 2024. A TechCrunch long read.
Elmo, Estonian startup developing tech for remotely controlled electric cars (teleoperations), raised ā¬2.6M. Money will be used to expand into foreign markets.
San Jose wants an autonomous service running between its airport and railway station, and has authorised plans with Glydways to do so. Completion expected in 2028.
BYD thinks that āself-driving tech thatās fully separated from humans is very, very far away, and basically impossibleā.
Flying cars š
Joby Aviation signs a $55M contract with the US Department of Defense (DoD). Joby will deliver and operate up to nine of its five-seat, low-noise electric aircraft. The eVTOLs will be used to demonstrate logistics use cases, such as people and cargo transport and medical evacuations. Pilot training is performed remotely, from the ground. Also Joby Aviation and Toyota expand partnership; Toyota will supply key powertrain and actuation components for Jobyās mass production plans.
Whisper Aero raises $32M Series A for Ultra Quiet Electric Propulsion. Coming out of research, the company is looking to grow revenue in the defence industry.
Watch a 6:30 in video on Archer Aviationās Midnight eVTOL.Flight testing will begin in mid-2023. First commercial routes are expected to be airport shuttles.
OEMs šŗā”ļø
Kate, electric micro-cars, raises ā¬7M. Funding will allow the company to develop its small and cheaper to buy and maintain car. The K1, Kateās next car, will travel at 90 km/h (56 mph) for a distance of 200 km (124 miles) and be designed for peri-urban and rural trips. The car is set to debut in Q3/23.
Gig economy š°
A LA Times long good read on āalgorithmic wage discriminationā.
In other news š°
=Mobileye shares dropped on Thursday by Ā±30% (from $42.9 to $31.6) after the company cut its revenue forecast from Ā±$2.25bn to Ā±$2.1bn and increased outlook of operational loss. It has since bounced back to $37.7 end of trade Friday. The reason for reducing the revenue forecast? (1) Slowdown in Chinese EV demand and consequently the need for (Mobileyeās) ADAS systems, a result of ending EV subsidies in China; and (2) Mobileyeās OEM partnersā price war with Tesla.
CorrActions, a driver monitoring system that can understand a driverās cognitive state by using existing sensors to analyse micro muscle movements, raised a strategic investment from Volvo. By analysing muscle data, the algorithm can detect tiredness or blood alcohol levels. The company is targeting a $6M round.
Modaxo acquired ExPretio Technologies, provider of revenue management and customer intelligence solutions for rail and bus operators.
āThe Future of Mobility'' report by McKinsey. Main takeaways: private cars are the leading mode of transport, with 45% usage, followed by public transport at 23%, micromobility at 16% and walking with 14%. Ride-hailing and taxi only amounts to 2%. A McKinsey consumer survey found that 30% plan to increase use of micromobility and/or shared cars. New mobility trends include a rise in micromobilty and shared mobility solutions and the development of MaaS solutions.
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