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Ford buys the Spin-free electric scooter company Spin for $ 40 million, according to Axios. The acquisition cost roughly the value of Spin after its Series A financing last year.
The deal is not the first time Ford has entered the electric scooter market; The company began testing scooters at Purdue University under the name "Jelly" last month. Ford has also been exploring new mobility solutions since acquiring the San Francisco-based Chariot Shuttle Service in 2016. Since 2013, Ford has been running a bike sharing program in the Bay Area called Ford GoBikes. Ironically, Motivate, the bike sharing company Ford, partner of the launch of GoBikes, has since been bought by Lyft, which also embarks on the game of electric scooters.
Although Spin is a SF-based company, the city temporarily suspended its scooters after a brief trial in March. Other start-ups of electric scooters like Lime and Bird have also suspended their activities in the city until the permit applications can be processed. (Only competing startups, Skip and Scoot, are currently licensed to SF.) For the moment, Spin is present in nine cities, including Charlotte, Denver, Detroit and Long Beach, as well as five university campuses. Ford's acquisition today should allow the company to take its scooters to more cities.
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