The Swedish scooter provider Voi attracts a new investment on land. The money will be used to further conquer the European market. But the competition does not sleep.
In the race for market leadership in electric scooters, the Swedish smart mobility startup Voi is one step further: In a new financing round, Voi has collected 26 million euros from investors. New are Project A and Creandum. The original investors in the scooter startup include Vostok New Ventures, Balderton Capital, LocalGlobe and Raine Ventures, who are also involved in the current round.
The Swedes put the new money into the further development of the product, research and development, as well as in the further development of the European market. And especially in the latter point, the air is getting thinner and thinner.
Offer in Vienna will be expanded
In Vienna alone, for example, the providers Lime, Bird and Tier already have a fierce race for the favor of scooter fans. The Berlin startup animal was even first active in Vienna and will only be able to launch in its own market in the near future, which has mainly regulatory reasons.
At the same time, more and more third-party providers are adding availability to their apps: Among other things, the new MyTaxi app will contain information about e-scooters, and Google Maps will now refer to offers from roller-hire company Lime in the app. “Multimodality” is the buzzword here: the user should not drive with a scooter from Simmering to Heiligenstadt, but use a mixture of different means of transport.
The scooter is well suited in the mix for the “last mile”, which is often difficult to cope with public transport. Whoever has to transport heavy objects, does not rely on scooters or the Bim, but prefers car sharing.
E-scooter: hot field for investors
At the same time, investments in the still comparatively young business segment keep flowing. So, in addition to Voi and the e-scooter provider Flash could attract an investment in the amount of 55 million euros to land. Behind the startup is the former Delivery Hero founder Lukasz Gadowski. And Tier has collected end of 2018, an investment in the amount of two million euros.
Are these investments too high in the face of a market where there are already many providers and at the same time other modes of transport operate at a high level? This question was answered well in late February by Michael Schuster, Speedinvest co-founder and partner, in a commentary for the brutkasten: Accordingly, investments are also attractive in highly competitive industries, if the market per se is disruptive and big enough – Scooter calls the Expert here as one of the prime examples.
At the same time, Voi emphasizes in a press release what the Swedes consider their own recipe for success: transparency, as well as consideration of the respective rules and laws. Before entering the market, Voi has in-depth discussions with local authorities to make sure that you can really be a viable building block in the local multimodal mix. Especially in a heavily regulated country like Austria, this can decide on success and failure.
Also published on Medium.