Voi, the pan-European micro mobility startup, today announced that it has reached its first ever monthly profit at group level for the month of June, less than two years since it launched the e-scooter service which now operates across 40 cities and 11 countries.
Also, the young company has signed a funding agreement with existing and new shareholders which will raise up to €26.3 million. VNV Global led the round accompanied by more than 20 existing investors and a select number of new shareholders. This additional funding round comes after having raised $50 million Series A round in 2018, €26 million in Q1 of 2019, and €77 million in November of 2019.
The fresh capital will be used to expand into new markets, including the UK and to focus even further on efficiency enhancing initiatives. Founded in 2018, the Swedish startup continues to target 2021 as its first full year of profitability.
Voi’s double digit EBITDA margin in June of this year, indicates a strong return to Europe’s streets for the European electric micro-mobility provider after months of disruption due to the coronavirus pandemic. The margin was achieved on sales in June that were remarkably close to sales seen in June 2019, indicating that scooter riders are returning in number to this personal mode of travel that allows people to keep socially distant and avoid crowds.
Full year figures for 2019 show that Voi’s revenues accelerated by almost fifty-fold during its first full year of operation, reaching about €30.6 million. At the same time, Voi’s employee numbers rose from 31 at the end of 2018 to 409 at the end of 2019.
The rapid growth of the startup has been supported by large sums of capital from committed shareholders, allowing Voi to launch successfully in all of Europe’s biggest e-scooter markets including Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Scandinavia.
At the centre of its strategy was the decision to invest in the fourth generation proprietary scooter, Voiager V3X, designed in-house. The roll-out of the new scooter, with a swappable battery, has been game changing for the company, driving a more than 50% reduction in lower daily charging, logistics and repair costs per scooter. At the same time, the mobility startup increased its investments to become the most efficient micro mobility operator in the world through data driven analytics and machine learning capabilities. Another initiative saw the company launch a resale programme for refurbished scooters, facilitating the efficient recycling of capital in line with its sustainability targets. To date over 10,000 scooters have been sold.
According to the Voi founders, there is currently also paradigm shift in the operating environment. Following the Covid-19 lock-downs, the regulatory environment in many countries has improved significantly and decision makers are embracing new modes of transportation. On the back of Voi’s past performance and the fresh appetite from policymakers for new forms of transport to relieve capacity constraints on public transport, Voi’s main shareholders are supporting the company to invest further in these new opportunities, including the opening up of the UK market, potentially Europe’s biggest yet.
Mathias Hermansson, the CFO and Deputy CEO of Voi Technology stated: “Coronavirus reset our industry to our long-term benefit and we are equipped to capitalize on the strong traction we see post-Covid-19. The incredible performance of our new e-scooter V3X has exceeded our expectations and we are now reaping the benefits of the structural improvements in unit economics that we have been working towards. The new generation scooters will make it possible to break-even at lower prices and lower utilization levels, paving the ground for the widespread adoption of e-scooters in Europe’s cities, on which we are entirely focused.”
He continued: “The performance this year bodes well for our launch in the UK where the Government has fast-tracked the launch of e-scooters in cities across the country, as a way of allowing socially distant travel. We expect to be awarded licenses in the next few weeks bringing micro-mobility to UK towns and cities for the first time and we are now strongly capitalized for this undertaking. We have seen huge interest from UK authorities in how Voi can work with them to launch this new form of low-carbon transport that replaces car use in urban areas.”
via https://www.AiUpNow.com/ by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
