JET acquired for €4.1 billion, Uber Rickshaw metamorphosis, Lilium & Nikola insolvent and Bird profitable

Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT? ????

Uber is changing the way it works - with Rickshaws.?

• The Rickshaw segment is ±25% of all motorised rides in India.
• Uber is moving to a driver daily usage fee (subscription based), ditching the familiar commission model.
• Uber is no longer an intermediate ride provider - fares will be decided by the driver, with Uber only suggesting a price; no more dealing with payment, which will now be either cash or payment via the government payment platform; and Uber will not deal with rider cancellations.?
• The company keeps in place rider app safety features.?

In the Indian Rickshaw segment, Uber has been losing market share to Rapido and Namma Yatri, hence the business model change. In addition, this way Uber relieves itself from fare regulation (implemented by some Indian states) and tax liability, as it now is not a ride aggregator anymore, but a “pure” SaaS player. Note that this change is not limited to India - and applies to some other SouthEast countries, such as Bangladesh.

Micromobility ????

Third Lane Mobility, also known as Bird and Spin, achieves Adjusted EBITDA profitability. Key 2024 takeaways:?

• Gross booking up 17% YoY to $204M
• Adjusted EBITDA $19.2M - 9.4% of gross bookings
• Circa 35 million rides - so roughly $5.8 per ride

In H1/25 the company is set to launch in 15 new markets, 8 of those have been secured through a competitive RFP process. Bird is also asking Vancouver to award it with a tender given to Lime, citing economic protectionism as its reason.

Delivery ????

Just Eat Takeaway has just been acquired by the Prosus Group for €4.1 billion. Who? What?

Prosus is an Amsterdam based global investment group, majority-owned by South African multinational Naspers (Wiki). In 2024 Prosus managed $152 billion in assets. In Prosus’ delivery and transport portfolio are Delivery Hero, iFood, Swiggy, Oda, Flink, Wolt, Bykea, Dott - and others. Just last week it invested ±$30M in Rapido, giving Prosus a 2.9% stake in the company.?

This isn’t the first time Prosus has tried to acquire Just Eat - in 2019 it lost the bidding war to Takeaway.com. This time around Prosus offeredJET €20.3 per share in cash, a 49% premium to the 3-month volume weighted average price and a 22% premium to the 3-month high - that sums up to €4.1 billion.

Flying cars ??

Christmas doesn't come around twice in the same year - and Lilium goes into its 2nd (and final) insolvency. The company escaped insolvency late December after securing investment - only to see the main investor pull out from the deal.?

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