Moving people mobility industry news (25/2/20)
Zeelo gives time back to people, and now IKEA has decided to let people buy products with their lost commute time. A must-see genius ad that illustrates that time is money.
Mobility, as always, has been very busy this past week:
In the United Kingdom, Tees Valley is launching a new on demand bus service operated by stagecoach. The three years pilot will try to connect local – rural living residents – to a reliable and efficient bus service. Expect more to follow, as the countryside charity is fiercely calling the government to reconnect rural England. And Milton Keynes is launching a ride sharing trial, where concessionary bus passes will be accepted as payments on journeys,
On to busy Germany: the city of H?xter is working to initiate an on-demand bus transportation solution; ioki is deploying on demand shuttles in airports and trying to enter Ahrensburg while the city is applying for funding; Tegel is continuing testing on autonomous shuttles; Moia is looking to expend its Hamburg fleet and is changing its driver policy. No more experienced drivers, now the company is looking for students and gig workers. And the company also gave freebies on election day; no wonder that Hamburg’s taxi drivers are protesting.
Over to more troubled places, the Kenyan NTSA (National Transport and Safety Authority) is full speed against SWVL, calling for the arrest of its Egyptian founder and CEO, Mustafa Kandil. The NTSA says SWVL doesn’t hold to regulation and has already arrested some of SWVL’s drivers, and impounded their vehicles. Commuters aren’t pleased.
In Italy, electric car sharing service “Share’nGo” has been halted due to high number of accidents and vandalism. The ugly side of sharing. Look forward to black boxes to be installed. Last week I reported in the suspension of the SVBus (Jetty) service In Mexico. Some op-eds are out there (opinion, another) but no policy change yet. Columbia: here is… Uber! Less the a month after getting banned, Uber is back with a slight change in the app that fits into current regulation. It’s kind of a loophole so we’ll have to see what the government does next.
And to end this part with a high note: A Japanese developer is offering car sharing subscription instead of parking space; in India, Bengal is creating new on-demand regulation; Corporates in India understand the importance of freeing employees from congestion, and are encouraging all different mobility sharing schemes. That makes it possible for Shuttl to raise ￡2.5M in round C, and they are now worth nearly $215M.
And finishing off with two mobility verticals that still have to deliver on unit economics:
Scooters: Who dared say that bikes and scooters lack a business model?! It turns out that Ofo have mastered the mobility go-to-profit – by turning into an e-commerce app. More on scooters, Amy Lewin in a deep (long read) scooter analysis. Helicopters (rebranded as flying cars so are way more hip now): Volocopter teams with Grab, utilizing Grab’s knowledge, to go into Asia; and the company has just closed a €87M series C round to developed its logistic arm.