Voi Technology, the "micro mobility" startup that operates an electronic scooter service in 38 cities in 10 European countries, has raised $ 85 million in Series B funds.
Supporting the round is a mix of existing and new investors. They include Balderton Capital, Creandum, Project A, JME Ventures, Raine Ventures, Kreos Capital, Inbox Capital, Rider Global and Black Ice Capital. The new financing brings the total raised by Voi to $ 136 million.
Readers with watery eyes will have noticed that, according to our previous Voi coverage, the total figure is $ 32 million. This is because not all previous Voi Series A commitments were charged after the company was offered more favorable conditions for its $ 30 million Series A extension and, therefore, chose not to withdraw the second section of its original Serie A.
Launched in 2018, the company is best known for its electronic scooter rentals, but now it is presented as a micro mobility provider, which offers several different transport devices. These include several models of e-scooter and e-bike, in an attempt to become a broader transport operator that helps reshape urban transport and leave people who use cars.
To date, Voi says it has 4 million registered users and has driven 14 million trips. More recently, it has launched a new and more robust hardware that has been designed to withstand the rigors of commercial electric bicycle exchange. The idea is that more suitable hardware help electronic scooter companies improve margins, since more trips can be taken from the useful life of each vehicle.
In that sense, Voi says to use the new funds to develop "strong profitable businesses" in the 38 cities where it is already operating, as well as to increase its R&D spending to improve its platform and technology products. Earlier this year, the company announced that it is already profitable in the cities of Stockholm and Oslo.
"Clearly, we feel that we are on our way to achieve this in more of our cities and that is our goal," says Voi co-founder and CEO Fredrik Hjelm. "At this point, a key approach for us is to ensure that we continue to increase the useful life of our e-scooters, forge key partnerships and continue working in those cities that provide the best conditions for a profitable e-scooter business."
Hjelm says that Voi version 2 scooters are projected to last more than 18 months, which means the company must make a profit before it needs to increase again. However, he will not be attracted when that could be.
With regard to R&D and improvements in the Voi platform, the company will continue to work during the life of its e-scooters, in addition to improving the management of repairs by integrating "predictive diagnoses."
Hjelm also says that Voi is developing an "AI-driven" fleet management and, in general, the platform's ability to support the future expansion of the product portfolio. In other words, we can expect new categories of micro mobility devices in the future.
