It’s another shock for the world of mobility… Just as we were celebrating the 29 major fundraising of 2023, a new shock has hit the sector. Bird, the forerunner of electric scooters, has filed for bankruptcy. Launched in 2017, the start-up had reached a valuation of $2.5 billion just two years after its creation. However, its IPO, carried out via an SPAC, has run into difficulties in recent months…
A story that began well…
Founded in 2017 in Los Angeles by Travis VanderZanden, a former Uber and Lyft executive, Bird Global launched the free-floating electric scooter craze. Interest in these machines was immediate. In just nine months, the start-up surpassed the symbolic billion-dollar valuation mark. In three years, it raised more than $600 million from investors. It then took advantage of the SPAC craze to float on the stock market in 2021, raising a further $250 million. The company was then capitalised at 2.3 billion dollars. In a competitive market, Bird has always spent enormously, without worrying too much about its losses, to deploy its scooters and bicycles in 400 cities and campuses in the United States and Europe…
The end of a great success story for Bird?
World of mobility is currently experiencing a major disruption with the recent announcement that Bird Global in Florida has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The news is all the more startling given that it comes barely five years after Bird achieved the prestigious status of ‘unicorn’, with a valuation in excess of one billion dollars. The New York Stock Exchange decided to delist Bird after its market capitalisation fell below $15 million. Bird Global will continue to operate as normal during the restructuring process. However, its European and Canadian operations are not affected by the bankruptcy filing.
We are making progress towards profitability and intend to accelerate this progress by resizing our capital structure through this restructuring.
Michael Washinushi, Acting CEO of BIRD GLOBAL
Challenges common to mobility startups
This rapid decline highlights the common challenges faced by cohttps://m2050.media/en/tier-mobility-news/mpanies in the mobility sector. Caught between strict regulations, safety concerns and exorbitant operating costs. Indeed, these companies are under considerable pressure. Recently, the micromobility giant Tier was forced to make massive redundancies. This is a perfect illustration of the context and the difficulties faced by all the players in the sector. A year marked by significant challenges for micromobility players.
