micromobility

Paris’ commercial court has accepted Cooltra’s offer to acquire Cityscoot. These two companies provide shared electric mopeds that you can unlock and ride to go from one place to another. Cityscoot had been placed under court-ordered receivership several months ago. As interest rates hovered around 0% in Europe, micromobility startups thrived. Europe became the perfect playground for scooter startups, bike-sharing services and electric moped companies thanks to dense cities combined with a low cost of capital. But…

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility – your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. This week, read about autonomous vehicle company Motional, why the Tesla board is likely having discussions about Elon Musk’s 2018 $56 billion pay package, a new unicorn focused on student transportation,…

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Hi folks, I’m back from CES 2024 and ready to share what I saw and heard! But first, big changes are coming to this weekly transportation newsletter. We’re retiring “The Station” name. Next week, look for “TechCrunch Mobility” in your inbox. Inside, you’ll find the same insightful transportation news,…

While micromobility companies around the globe have been in limbo and hitting snags like bankruptcy, shutdown and layoffs, a Seoul-based shared e-scooters and e-bikes operator called Gbike is gearing up to go public on the Korean stock market and is reviewing acquisition targets.  In an exclusive interview with TechCrunch, Walter Yoon, CEO and founder of Gbike, said the startup is currently in talks for acquisitions in the micromobility industry to increase its market share before its planned initial public offering,…

At an all-hands meeting just before Thanksgiving, Superpedestrian’s CEO Assaf Biderman told staff the electric scooter company was gearing up for fresh funding and a merger. Management would announce the news on January 1, but until then, Superpedestrian needed to go lean. A handful of people lost their jobs, including some executives in Europe. The rest were told to hold fast.  Less than a month later, Superpedestrian would collapse.   “And then, of course, we got the bad news ,” one former employee at…

New York City and New Jersey residents who are already exasperated by periodic increases in MTA subway fares are going to lack even more options for cheap public transit. Out of the blue on Thursday, Citi Bike suddenly announced its bike share program was raising prices across the board, impacting annual paying members and non-members alike.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerCiti Bike riders received emails alerting them to the cost increases, impacting Citi Bike and Lyft Pink subscribers, daily riders, and Reduced Fare…

Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, capping off a turbulent year for the electric scooter company. In a press release today, Bird confirmed that it had entered into a “financial restructuring process aimed at strengthening its balance sheet,” with the company continuing to operate as normal in pursuit of “long-term, sustainable growth.” Founded in 2017 by former Lyft and Uber executive Travis VanderZanden, Bird is one of numerous startups to introduce dockless micromobility platforms…

Superpedestrian, the e-scooter startup known for its self-diagnostic software, is shutting down its U.S.-based shared scooter operation on December 31 and exploring a sale of its European business, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The company’s director of U.S. operations, Alexander Berg, confirmed the news to his team Friday afternoon on a Zoom call. Berg said the reason for the shutdown was financial, but did not go into further detail. “Even our investors have put in money to keep us afloat even to this point,”…

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. Electric vehicles are one of the main characters in this newsletter, so I thought it would be worth noting a less visible — yet fundamental — aspect of the EV storyline here in North America.…

Micromobility Europe 2023 returned to Amsterdam last week for a two-day microEV extravaganza. Personal electric vehicles from all over Europe and beyond converged on the venue, bringing in e-bikes, e-scooters, e-unicycles, electric micro-cars and more. To cap off two full days of product displays, expert panels, startup pitches and more, the conference joined local cyclists in Amsterdam for a massive rave ride, complete with a DJ on a cargo e-bike blasting music along the route. Below is a…