Bird, a reputed dockless eScooter sharing startup, is planning to raise around $2.5B in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
With headquarters in Santa Monica (California), Bird entered the market back in 2017.
It brought with it a wide range of dockless fleet and changed the landscape of the industry – something that made various brands like Skip, Lyft, Jump, and Lime interested in eScooter app development.
The brand has, since its launch, been in the news. In 2019 alone, they raised a funding of around $300M in Series C roundup led by Sequoia Capital and acquired an eScooter sharing service, Scoot. They also added a two-seater electric bicycle with LED screen to its vehicle set.
This, as a whole, brought this into the limelight that Bird is expanding its business at all fronts and this fundraising is another initiative in the same line.
While the exact valuation of funding is not yet revealed, it is expected to bring a momentous difference in Bird’s business expansion – a hint of which can be taken from what Roelof Botha, a board member of the startup, disclosed to TechCrunch:-
“What they’ve accomplished in achieving both rapid growth and strong unit economics is rare for a company this complex and so early on. Bird’s innovation across a spectrum of disciplines to achieve operational excellence at scale, including hardware design and manufacturing, vehicle maintenance and repair, optimization of Bird charging and deployment, and city-level regulatory affairs is unparalleled.”
All these funding valuations give a clear indication that the eScooter ride-sharing economy is growing exponentially and it is profitable to look into how to start an eScooter app business.
However, the market scenario was not the same always.
In earlier days, scooters were subjected to theft and wreckage – primarily due to unavailability of any durable model. The regulators resisted the vehicle, popular cities set caps on fleet sizes and authorizing speed limits and Uber and Lyft received tepid initial public offerings.
This not solely made investors think twice before funding eScooter businesses, but also made brands less interested in determining the cost of Bird eScooter app development and take the step forth.
To survive and grow in such a market scenario, Bird focused on lowering its cost by cutting staff and downshift their expansion plans. It also turned towards experimenting with direct sales of its Scooters and monthly rentals.
They further invested the best of their efforts and time into upgrading their fleet. Last year, they launched an eScooter model that lasts for 10 months or more which makes up more than 75% of the fleet, and much more.
An outcome of all such efforts brought a major positive impact on Bird’s business and market position. A proof of which is a recent tweet by Travis VanderZanden, the Chief Executive of Bird, which states that Bird spends around $1.27 on every single ride, inclusive of all costs. And this step has resulted in an increase in the company’s revenue by 4x.
While this is all for now, we will soon update this news content when something is revealed. So, keep revisiting this page to keep yourself updated with all these funding and other announcements related to the Bird eScooter business.
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