Neuron Mobility, a Singapore-based shared e-scooter and e-bike operator, announced Wednesday it has successfully raised $43.5 million in Series B funding, follows 19 months of significant growth and brings the company’s total funding to $77.7 million.
The investment round was co-led by global venture firms GSR Ventures and Square Peg. Also joining the round was Singapore’s EDBI, a global Asia-based investor.
Fresh capital will fuel Neuron Mobility’s unique international expansion strategy, which is laser-focused on winning highly prized competitive tenders.
Increasingly, cities are choosing to limit the number of micromobility operators by awarding long-term contracts to the best operators which prioritize managing e-scooters and e-bikes in a sustainable and responsible way. This suits Neuron Mobility’s willingness to partner with cities and is far more predictable, with higher vehicle-use rates, than operating in less-regulated “free-for-all” markets with low, or no, barriers to entry.
Funding will also allow the company to continue to design and manufacture their own safety-first e-scooters, as well as develop and roll out a range of innovative technology at scale.
This vertically integrated approach – which differs from most other shared micromobility companies – allows Neuron Mobility to innovate quicker and more efficiently. Continuous operational data and feedback enables the company to adapt and update their vehicles quickly to perform better and last longer. This provides the company with a competitive advantage as more cities across the world look to select only the best and most innovative micromobility providers.
New investment will also be used to fund more proprietary technology and will accelerate the launch of Neuron Mobility’s new “e-scooter brain” which will be rolled out on their e-scooters in key cities.
The technology includes industry-leading High Accuracy Location Technology (HALT) which can correct GPS variance to locate an e-scooter to within 10 centimetres rather than the industry norm of five to ten metres. It also includes a range of smart sensors and a Dangerous Riding Detection system, which will combat sidewalk riding, aggressive swerving, skidding, tandem riding and curb jumping. The technology allows the company to correct or penalize unsafe behaviours while also incentivizing safe riding. A major technology trial – the first of its kind – involving 1,500 e-scooters in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom was announced in November 2021.
Since Neuron Mobility’s last funding round 19 months ago, the company has more than tripled its operations, growing from seven cities in September 2020 to 26 cities today.
The company launched in Canada in May 2021 and has since gained permits to operate in over 30 per cent of all available cities to become the fastest-growing e-scooter operator in the country. To date, the company has secured permits in five Canadian cities, including Ottawa, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Vernon.
In Australia, Neuron Mobility has solidified its position as the country’s leading micromobility operator and the company has won every competitive tender it has participated in, bringing their total number of operational cities in Australia to 14. The company also increased its global footprint with city launches in the United Kingdom and South Korea
“Cities are shifting to a more regulated way of managing shared micromobility, increasingly selecting the best one or two operators before awarding them long-term contracts. This fully validates our strategy, and the strong foundations we have built in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom give us a great springboard to scale globally. Over the last 19 months Neuron has launched in 22 new cities and the vast majority have been the result of winning competitive tenders – this bodes very well for the future,” said Zachary Wang, Neuron Mobility’s Chief Executive Officer.
“We think our vertically integrated approach, designing and building our own e-scooters and the systems that run them, gives us a unique advantage. Proprietary technologies, like our ‘e-scooter brain’ and a range of artificial intelligence (AI) innovations, are a real differentiator and help us integrate into cities in the best possible way,” he added.