Bird, the pioneer of e-scooter app industry has marked its position in the market as the leader of the e-Scooter share economy by getting its third round of funding of $300 Million within the duration of one year.
What started in the Autumn of 2017, Bird has already come a long way, both in terms of the market that it has covered in terms of user base and the demand it has seen for its service offerings. What started as an idea of mode of commutation in a ‘Last Mile’ world – where the distance between Point A and Point B is too long to walk and too short to take a cab – in Southern California, has taken over a major part of the US, while setting an example for a number of other players like Spin and Lime etc to emerge in the market.
After getting its third financing of $300 Million in the year, Bird is now valued at $2 Billion – a valuation that is rarely seen in an early stage start-up.
[Want to See your e-Scooter App Idea on Bird’s Growth Trend? Read: Cost of Bird e-Scooter App Development and Everything Else About the Trend]
The latest $300 million round that Bird received a few days back was led by the leading firm Sequoia Capital, and was joined by a series of investors like B Capital, Accel, CRV, Greycroft, Sound Ventures, and e.ventures, the brand said.
Also, as part of the funding, Roelof Botha, Sequoia’s investing partner will be joining Bird’s board of directors.
Now that you know about this round of funding,
Let us look back at the other two fundings that the e-Scooter app pioneer has received –
In February, 2018 – $15 Million
Travis VanderZanden, the CEO and Founder of Bird raised Series A funding for the e-scooter in the ride sharing economy in February. The $15 Million funding was initiated to expand the brand nation-wise at the speed of 15 mph (the speed at which commuters move from Point A to Point B when using Bird).
In March, 2018 – $ 200 Million
Bird filed a Certificate of Incorporation in Delaware in March where it mentioned getting $200 Million round of funding that placed company at $1 Billion Valuation. The certificate indicated that Bird has permissioned sale of over 31.5 million new shares in the funding round at the value of near about $6.15 per share, an amount which when sold fully would tag the startup’s net worth at around $200 Million in the round.
Bird is not the only e-Scooter app that has received fundings for its expansion in this frequency. The other two market players – Spin and Lime have a similar story to share.
LimBike raised $70 Million in February over and above its $50 Million Series B funding round, marking its present valuation at $132 Million. The brand is not stopping there. They are planning to raise $250 Million in funding with Uber’s Investor GV leading the round. It is reported that Lime has invited investors with the data that suggests that the users have taken 4.2 Million rides till date and that every scooter gets a minimum of 8 to 12 rides a day.
[*Update: LimeBike Scooter Gets $335M Funding from Uber and Google]
While this was about Lime, Spin is also not lagging behind.
Last year in May, Spin received its Series A funding of $8 Million led by Grishin Robotics. The other investors that showed an interest in the idea were CRCM and Exponent.VC.
These sorts of rolling rounds aren’t completely uncommon. Startups, in place of bundling everything with each in one round, may at times have one process, which includes a series of follow-on rounds of investment, in which this might be an element.
The frequency and valuation of fundings that Bird, Lime or Spin are receiving is a sign of how the start-ups in the e-scooter ride sharing mobile apps ecosystem are in a space where they have a lot of opportunities to scale.
With the right business strategy in place and with the support of a mobile app development company that knows the e-Scooter app technical know-how, you can be the next Bird too.
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