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Tier, one of a number of electric scooter rental startups based in Berlin, has raised a chunky € 25 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is VC Northzone fund, with participation from existing investors Speedinvest, and Point Nine.
The investment marks the largest financial backing for a European company in the space, and, according to my sources, signals the beginning of a pending VC war to create the "Bird or Lime of Europe".
Go Flash (or perhaps just "Flash"), founded by Hero Delivery and Team Europe founder Lukasz Gadowski, is also thinking about VCs across Europe. I understand the yet-to-launch startup is already backed by Gadowski's own cash and € 2 million from the global target global mobility arm.
There's also a BCG Digital Ventures e-scooter subsidiary owned by Bosch and backed by BCG Digital Ventures that operates in Berlin, Paris and Madrid. And just two months ago, it has been announced that it is going to be under the brand Bolt, first launched in Paris but also planning to be pan-European, including Germany. To name just a few.
Meanwhile, Bird and Lime have made launches in Europe. The U.S. e-scooter services are both available in Paris, with other European cities expected soon.
More on Northzone-backed Tier
Founded by "serial entrepreneurs" Lawrence Leuschner (CEO), Julian Blessin (CPO), and Matthias Laug (CTO), provides electric scooters that can be
last mile in cities. To use the service, riders download the app, locate one of the available e-scooters using the map, pay a fixed fee of € 1 to unlock, followed by a fee of € 0.15 per minute to ride.
The beginning of a career in the field of urban mobility, which is as simple as it seems to be. "The goal is to change the face of the current situation, and the effect, the inconvenience and overprovision of transportation together" says the company.
Its first active city is Vienna, which launched just last week. However, the plan is to use the new series.
Cue a statement from Paul Murphy, Partner at Northzone: "European cities are uniquely placed to benefit from access to low-carbon, accessible and convenient transportation, thanks to their high population density and political commitment to lower carbon emissions. It takes a strong team to navigate to a complex landscape. Tier is the frontrunner in Europe, and we have been incredibly impressed with what the team has achieved to date. We think they can become a category winner in a space ".
Fun fact: Tier's Blessin was instrumental in setting up rival e-scooter Coup as the company's "Venture Build" & Head of Growth.
More on Gaduk's Lukasz's Go Flash
Though not yet official – Gadowski's LinkedIn profile is here at TBA MOBILITY SERVICE – Go Flash is one of Berlin's worst kept secrets. The new venture was recently mentioned by local German blog Gruenderzene, while I was hearing a few more details from my own sources in the German city and a number of VCs across Europe.
One rumor in circulation is that Gadowski is in the midst of raising a "mega round" of multiple European VCs, with the aim of creating both a fend off Bird and Lime, but also to launch a pan-European e-scooter service that hits the road motoring via a roll up of other nascent e-scooter startups across the region.
The figure being touted is between $ 100 million and $ 200 million, with one source telling me it's still very early days, while another says the deal is practically done. I've also heard that it's already in talks with an e-scooter startup in Sweden (while Delivery Hero garnered much of its growth via acquisition).
As one person familiar with Gadowski's previous modus operandi put it: "He's good at fundraising. $ 100 million would not be hard for Lukasz to raise. He raised over a $ 1 trillion in equity for Hero Delivery and made a lot of people money. In other words, we might expect to see some partners with Delivery Hero take part.
More intriguingly, one source, albeit based on a limited disclosure of the European VCs "colluding" in a bid to keep Silicon Valley at bay. The general feeling is that they do not want to use the lucrative e-scooter space, which appears to be very promising in the economy, to be rolled over by a company in the same place. competition.
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