INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Launching and operating shared bikes and scooters has lost its novelty
Worldwide, numerous companies are operating shared micromobility services — so many that the industry is well into a consolidation
phase.
In Latin America, Grow Mobility formed as part of a merger between micromobility providers Grin and Yellow
In the U.S., Bird acquired Scoot
And, while not a traditional consolidation, Lime and Uber have partnered to include Lime scooters within the Uber app.
Meanwhile, we now
have a handful of players operating in the direct-to-consumer model; Unagi, Boosted and even Bird has started selling direct to
consumers.
Despite the over-saturation of the market, there are still opportunities for new players
Currently, there are two key areas that have yet to see a lot of action and are therefore ripe for disruption.
Those opportunities include
creating a software ecosystem on top of bikes and scooters and improving unit economics by focusing on batteries.
As you may remember,
business and mobility analyst Horace Dediu recently told me these micromobility vehicles have an opportunity to also be software hubs
In fact, he said it where he expects bigger players like Google and Apple to enter the space.
Already, at least one startup is taking steps
to become the operating system for micromobility vehicles.Tortoise, a startup founded by former Uber executive Dmitry Shevelenko, ispursuing
autonomous repositioning of scooters.
