Trending in the latest news, e-scooter rental Neuron Mobility has an important announcement. The Singapore-based startup added $12 million to its Series A funding which was led by Australian VC Square Peg and GSR Ventures. The additional funding brings up the new total to a whopping $30.5 million. The company that conducts operations in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets, announced its Series A round of funding in December 2019.
Neuron Mobility’s Expansion Plans
The new funding is expected to help speed up Neuron Mobility’s expansion plans in Australia and New Zealand. The company claims to be the leading electric scooter rental operator in these regions. Currently, the startup is present in nine locations, which include Auckland, New Zealand, and Australian cities Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, and Townsville. Neuron Mobility’s expansion plans include five new cities over the next year. They also involve hiring over 400 employees across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Besides the Asia-Pacific region, Neuron Mobility plans to launch in Slough by the end of this year. It will be the company’s first location in the United Kingdom.
A big part of Neuron Mobility’s growth plan hinges on a change in consumer behaviour during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This means the increased adoption of electric scooters and bikes. Since people are working remotely or are experiencing movement restrictions where they live, most of them are using their cars less frequently. Hence, electric bikes and scooters offer a safe and viable alternative to public transportation and ride-sharing services for short trips.
Zachary Wang, the CEO of Neuron Mobility said the company raised a Series A+ funding instead of moving onto a Series B. This is because more cities are opening up to the possibility of micro-mobility with social distancing, especially rental e-scooters as they present an individual transport option to relieve the pressure from public transport.
Wang stated that the startup has been experiencing tremendous growth in ANZ and the pandemic has made them fast-track our plans. He also added that Neuron Mobility is constantly evaluating opportunities across APAC. At present, it does not operate in any other Southeast Asian countries besides Singapore.
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About Neuron Mobility
Founded in 2016, Neuron claims to be the fastest-growing shared electric scooter operator as well as micro-mobility technology developer in the Asia Pacific region. They currently operate e-scooter services across various locations in Australia and New Zealand such as Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Canberra, Charles Sturt, Darwin, Holdfast Bay, Port Adelaide Enfield, Townsville and West Torrens.
According to Wang, Neuron Mobility strategically plans which cities it will launch in, instead of focusing on rapid expansion. It partners with city councils, continually shifting and adapting to meet their needs. Several of Neuron Mobility’s features were developed after discussions with city councils. These included a “helmet lock” to make helmets available for all scooters and geofencing to control where and how fast e-scooters can be ridden. The scooters have been specifically designed for rentals and thus resort to swappable batteries to reduce pollution. Australia’s recent e-scooter boom has led to increasing safety concerns among riders and local authorities. As per ambulance and emergency department data from Brisbane in 2019, most injured riders were aged between 20-34 years old, of which 10% faced minor head injuries, 3% faced major head injury, 21% had upper limb fractures, and 6% had lower limb fractures [1].
Wang concluded that after its Singapore launch, the company has decided to focus on expansion in Australia and New Zealand. This is because it believes that both countries have cities that are highly suited for micro-mobility in terms of infrastructure and regulations.
Source
[1] CARRS-Q (2020) “State of the Road: A Fact Sheet of the Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q)” [Online] Available from: https://research.qut.edu.au/carrs-q/wp-content/uploads/sites/296/2020/06/e-Scooter-Safety.pdf [Accessed October 2020]
Featured Image Courtesy: Image by Kristoffer Trolle from Flickr
Image Courtesy: Image by Marco Verch from Flickr
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