Movements | June 5th, 2020

Car parking meets micromobility. Cities are funding cargo eBikes for local businesses.

Jun 05, 2020

Issue [#95} - Brought to you by Michal Naka and Adam Feldman. Join thousands of others who receive this analysis and curation of emerging mobility news in their inbox every week — subscribe now.

If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends 🤜🤛

Micromobility

The city of Sheffield, UK received a grant for 32 cargo eBikes to give to local businesses. “Businesses who expressed an interest in using an E-Bike were required to commit 10% of the cost of the E-Bike and purchase the necessary protective equipment, such as helmets and hi-vis clothing.” | Sheffield
Micromobility is leading the world’s EV adoption: “More than 180 million electric bikes and trikes are already in use, and BNEF predicts there will be almost 600 million by 2040.” | Bloomberg
Voi is working with parking companies in Lyon, France to offer Voi vouchers to drivers who park and take scooters to their final destination. | Voi
Spin’s Chief Business Officer hints at the company testing eBikes in a podcast interview. | Micromobility Podcast
Bird shuts down Circ’s Middle East operations. | Techcrunch
UK premium automotive dealer Harwoods partnered with VanMoof to offer its customers discounted eBikes with faster shipping times. | VanMoof x Harwoods
Unagi donated scooters to a hospital in NYC and is now raising money to give more scooters away to other hospitals in the city. Check out the video. | Unagi
We need more Black Women in senior roles in Micromobility. H/T to Sarah Barnes excellent AV newsletter “Along for the Ride”. | Georgia Yexley

Product Launches & Updates

Cowboy released its 3rd generation eBike with new software features like auto-unlock, theft alert, crash detection, and air quality mapping. The company is also achieving more control over its supply chain which will hopefully allow for lower costs and new innovation in the future. From a FB post: “Cowboy 3 is also a transitional product launch for us as a company, as for the first time, we now manage internally the entire supply chain, which gives us significantly more control on our business. In itself, this is a major milestone for us as well, one very much needed to scale quality and volumes going forward.” | Adrien Roose
Hardware startup Superpedestrian is launching its own scooter service after it raised $15 million and acquired Zagster’s “permits, software and other IP, and talent”. | The Verge
Uber is testing ‘Uber Rent’, a new feature that allows riders to rent a car in Australia. | Uber
Uber is also rolling out a new ride product where users can book an hourly Uber for $50 per hour - riders can select up to 3 stops and an expected timeframe in-app. | Uber
Concrete wireless power? MagDock is a concrete charging and docking station for micromobility vehicles. | Magnet
Apple Pay rolled out support for Hong Kong’s public transit system. | MacRumors

Ridehailing, Carsharing, & Delivery

Careem doesn’t expect a full recovery until 2021, but is focusing on becoming a ‘super-app’ as offline businesses move online in the Middle East. | CNBC
Uber’s grocery delivery partner Corner Shop is receiving push back from US grocery stores. | The Information
Amazon is now the fourth largest US delivery service and growing fast. | Digital Commerce

Investment & Deals

Facebook invested an undisclosed sum into Southeast Asian ridehailing app Gojek. This deal gives Facebook access to thousands of small-businesses coming online via Gojek’s digital payment tools. | Facebook
Daimler invests in Platform Science, a transportation technology tool for truckers. | WSJ
Yes, investors are still putting cash into shared micromobility: Singapore’s Beam raised a $26 million Series A as it expands across Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and beyond. | Techcrunch
Latin American micromobility operator Tembici raised a $47 million Series B with an investment from the World Bank - as it rolls out docked eBikes across South America. | Techcrunch
European eBike operator Bond Mobility acquired vehicle connectivity startup e-motionlabs. | e-motionlabs

Cities & Policy

Andy Byford, formerly of NYC Transit, is now London’s Transportation Commissioner. | NYT
Zillow’s CEO says the company “has not observed a dramatic spike in people moving out of cities in favor of suburbs to the coronavirus pandemic.” | CNBC
A German Cafe finds a fun way to encourage social distancing. | Lonely Planet

We would love to hear your thoughts. Give feedback.

Movements