[ad_1]
Kirt McMaster launched Cyanogen with the ambitious goal of becoming the third most dominant operating system behind Apple and Google. Now he's back to face another duopoly: Lyft and Uber.
McMaster co-founded Bond Mobility in 2017, shortly after being removed from Cyanogen's CEO position, as a result of reports that the company has exaggerated its success and misled investors. On Wednesday, Bond Mobility announced that it has raised $ 20 million in Series A funds from DENSO's New Mobility group, which includes Toyota and Softbank, as it prepares to outperform other bike and satellite startups. Dockless scooters in the United States.
US-based micro-mobility start-ups such as Bird, Lime and Jump have sparked renewed investor interest and, in some cases, achieved unicorn status or have been acquired. But, according to McMaster, these companies rely on a fundamentally useless material in scooters and low-power electric bikes.
Read more:A start-up from Utah that keeps a safe distance with the "noise" of Silicon Valley has just raised $ 200 million in its third round of fundraising in one year
"We think the electric speed bike is the main predator and we have the option of eating in the less than six mile category," McMaster told Business Insider. "There are hundreds of millions of dollars in the space between scooter guys, scooters are just over-saturated, they're aiming at pedestrians, and the promise of micro-mobility was to reduce the impact. your carbon footprint and your traffic jam, so you have to replace vehicle transport. "
According to McMaster, Bond's Speed Electric Bikes are a more powerful version of Jump's electric bikes and more closely resemble Scoot mopeds, with no additional certification needed to drive them. McMaster told Business Insider that Bond's electric bikes had longer battery life and more efficient engines, so they would better serve people outside of dense urban centers.
He also said that the rapid rise in the number of scooter startups in the United States has provided his team with many opportunities to learn remote safety abroad.
"I think you're going to see a lot of consolidation [of transportation startups] McMaster said, "Personally, I enjoy participating in competitions in a space where no one does it and where we clearly differentiate ourselves from others."
Bond will use Wednesday's Series A capital to help expand into the US in "the next few quarters," McMaster said. He said he was not worried about his reintroduction into Silicon Valley after being ousted at Cyanogen, while the company had been dealing with allegations of investor fraud and indifference.
"I've done a number of startups, and when you collect a lot of money, you tend to believe that capital will still be available," McMaster said. "The winds have turned a little bit and we need to be more aware that it's less about reducing the blitz.You can not do it when you're a hardware company.Micro-mobility is a megatrend, it will not disappear and investors invest in companies that demonstrate a sustainable business in search of sustainable markets. "
Source link
