Skyline Advisors
  • Services
  • Team
  • Transactions
  • Industries
  • Reports
  • News
    • Capital Markets
    • Firm News
    • Resources
  • Contact
    • Newsletter
  • us

Partners for Strategic Transactions

E-Scooter Sharing All the Craze in 2018

12/31/2018

0 Comments

 
​2018 was the year of the electric scooter. Four-letter e-scooter brands such as Lime, Bird, Spin and Skip have become the attention-getters of the venture world. So far, these four raised a total of $1.02 billion in venture funding this year – $455.7 million for Lime, $415 million for Bird, $18.2 million for Jump, and $131 million for Skip. Established transportation companies are also getting involved in the craze. Jump Bikes, a bike- and scooter-sharing service, was bought by Uber for $250 million in April, and Spin was acquired by Ford for $100 million in November. Lime is even in partnership with Uber to offer scooters through the Uber app. 
According to valuation estimates from Pitchbook and TechCrunch, Bird is the most valuable of the e-scooter players at around $2 billion and is offered in 75 U.S. cities and 18 universities. Lime is offered in 127 cities and was last valued at $1.85 billion. However, these firms have been running into some regulatory hurdles with municipalities. When Lime and Bird first began entering cities, regulations weren’t in place to control the scooters, which can go as fast as 15 miles per hour. In some states, the scooters are classified as motor vehicles, meaning they require titles, insurance and inspections. Some cities, such as Athens, Georgia, are taking a harder stance, impounding 1,206 of Bird’s scooters after the company introduced them without permission.
 
While the market for e-scooters is surging, consumers are also making direct purchases for their own e-scooters. According to Ninebot-Segway, one of the globe’s largest e-scooter makers, sales climbed from around 200,000 in 2017 to over one million in 2018, with about half of those sales going directly to consumers. In fact, a vice-president of business development at Ninebot believes that the scooter-sharing model is unsustainable, as the companies meet regulatory challenges and increased competition. Increased consumer demand for the scooters themselves could also push out the providers of scooter-sharing services.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2019
    December 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All
    Hardware
    Initial Public Offering
    Media
    Mergers And Acquisitions
    Regulation
    Software

    RSS Feed

Picture
​Services involving securities are offered through M&A Securities Group, Inc.4151 N Mulberry Drive Suite 252, Kansas City, MO, 64116  (“MAS") . Services involving real estate brokerage are offered through Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate ("BHHS"). Skyline Advisors, MAS, and BHHS are separate entities. 
​

COPYRIGHT 2025. Skyline Advisors, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Virtual Data Room
Company   Services   Team   Transactions   Industries   Reports   News
Photo from inkknife_2000 (8.5 million views +)
  • Services
  • Team
  • Transactions
  • Industries
  • Reports
  • News
    • Capital Markets
    • Firm News
    • Resources
  • Contact
    • Newsletter
  • us