SWVL goes public, why did Instacart willingly devalue, and Chalo acquires Vogo.

SWVL debuted on NASDAQ this Thursday (March 31st), after deSPACing from Queen’s Gambit. Trading under ‘GMBT’ on its first day, the company started at ±$9.8 per share, and ended the day at $9.36; from April 1st (today) the company will be traded under the ticker ‘SWVL”. This SPAC is a test for both the company and the market, as past months have seen tech companies' market caps being cut and SPACs receiving a cold(er) shoulder from investors. Good luck SWVL!

In the past week SWVL has announced the hiring of Kevin Foreman, former North America GM at Optibus, to lead its global public sector efforts; and a partnership with Moove to rollout electric buses. Also, read an interview with Leandro Aliseda, recently joined from VIA to lead the public sector in LATAM. 

Instacart is willingly slashing its own valuation by almost 40% to ±$24bn. The March 2021 round saw the company valued at ±$39bn, but since then the stock market has devalued many tech companies, including the likes of DoorDash (debut $175 per share in December 2020, ±$117 today) and Deliveroo (£282 in April 2021 vs. £112.5 today). Why is Instacart suddenly lowering its valuation? (1) by doing so, Instacart can offer stock awards to new and current employees at a more attractive price; and (2) Instacart is still planning on an IPO at some point this year, and the IPO price needs to be aligned with market expectations. 

India: Chalo acquires Vogo, a scooter and bike-rental company. Chalo acquired Shuttl in Oct. 21 after Shuttl didn’t withstand the pandemic, acquiring it for much less than the $122M invested in it (sum unknown, but we do know that just before Chalo raised $40M in series C and acquired Shuttl in an all-cash deal). Negotiations with Vogo, who raised $180M so far, have been going since at least November, and have now been concluded in a share-swap deal. This will allow Chalo a first/last mile solution to supplement its bus-focused operations. 

Staying in India: Shared Mobility Landscape of India by Geraldine Priya. Tracking all the different mobility players in this vast country is a challenge, and now arrives a reliable source of information. 

Ride-hailing  🚗🚙

Uber has struck a deal with New York taxis. Taxi drivers who use Creative Mobile Technologies or Curb Mobility, two taxi dispatching companies that between them work with ±14,000 York’s taxi drivers, will be able to accept trips from Uber. Initially created to undermine the taxi business model, Uber now joins forces with the industry. For more: FT, The Verge, New York Times. And a similar deal is close to completion in San Francisco. This is a white flag raised by the taxi companies, who in the past decade have seen Uber (& Lyft) take more and more of their business. Now some taxi companies are willing to be paid less - Uber’s prices - in return for greater demand. 

Uber’s London licence has been extended. The company, which had its share of challenges with Transport for London (TfL), received an extension of 2.5 years. Uber is “delighted”. Cont. with Uber London - riders in all of Greater London can now choose to ride in electric vehicles, and will pay the same; drivers will receive 15% more. So far the offer was relevant only to Zone 1 (city centre). Bolt taxi launches in Cork, Ireland. 

SafeBoda (Uganda) is experiencing challenges. Lower driver bonuses and higher commissions, initiated before the pandemic, made the platform slightly unattractive. Post lockdowns, which affected the bodaboda (bike-hailing) industry to great extent, saw up to half of the 25,000 drivers not returning to the platform. To combat this, Safeboda is becoming a super-app, with food delivery services, airtime purchase, cashless payments, mobile money transactions, and a savings scheme. 

GoTo, the merger of Gojek and e-commerce platform Tokopedia, is scheduled to debut on the Indonesian Stock Exchange on April 11th. In recent months valuation has been slashed from $40bn to $28.8bn, but the market is apparently still not convinced. Soon we’ll know if the IPO is a success or not. 

Ola to acquire Avail Finance, a financial services startup that serves the blue-collar workforce. Soap opera moment: Ola’s and Avail’s founders and CEOs are brothers. And the companies share investors. Price is said to be ±$50M and it is still pending shareholders approval. Ola already owns a 9 per cent stake in Avail Finance.  

Ride-hailing infotainment by IVEE. IVEE supplies the tablet and cables etc. free of charge and pays for the data plan. Money is made by advertising, and is split with the owner/driver. 

Delivery 🧺🍽

Google introduces a last-mile & cloud fleet routing solution. Last mile functionality allows “capturing valid addresses, planning delivery routes, efficiently navigating drivers, tracking shipment progress, and analysing fleet performance”.  It also allows to set and view delivery tasks. Cloud Fleet Routing API will follow in Q2. No more ‘just’ search, Google is venturing into the delivery business, as a software provider.  

DoorDash partners with BJ’s Wholesale Club. This is one more step in the expansion of delivery companies to additional products and vertices. DoorDash is playing catchup to Instacart, which already works with a number of wholesale clubs, including BJ’s and Costco. DoorDash is stepping up White-label efforts, announcing a partnership with Wix to allow restaurants to offer delivery (via DoorDash). Deliveroo partners with WH Smith; now you can get books and stationary in as little as 20 minutes; shares soar. Gopuff Partners with Morrisons In UK for speedy grocery delivery. Cabify has an e-commerce and retail delivery service; it is now opening its own warehouses. Yandex Deli is considering shutting down its French unit and selling its stake in its UK business.  

Gopuff is preparing to lay off hundreds of employees, or around 3% of its global workforce. The move will see a reduction of >$40M in annual costs. GoPuff is preparing for an IPO in 2022, valued now at circa $40bn. Where did I see a similar number… oh ye, Instacart, before the devaluation. 

Gorillas - New York - drops 10 minute delivery pledge, with deliveries currently taking up to 30 minutes. This is because (a) it is really hard to make deliveries in 10 minutes and still be profitable; (b) politicians are disliking the model, as it encourages traffic violations and irresponsible driving. The company is also facing heat over the ‘dark store’ model, as those are flouting zoning laws (warehouses in retail spots), so is starting to allow pick-ups (in this case, it is also good for profits)

Zomato is attempting to deliver food (not grocery, restaurant food) in 10 minutes or less. Trialled in its home city of Gurugram (India), this is the first time any company is attempting to deliver food in such a short time. 

The cost of next day delivery.

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Tier acquires Fantasmo, a U.S.-based computer vision-powered e-scooter parking startup whose tech Tier had been trialling in multiple cities in Europe. Fantasmo’s Camera Positioning System (CPS) can reach an accuracy of 20 cm or less. This is Tier’s 4th acquisition (NextBike, Wind, Spin and now Fantasmo) in five months.   

Spin is available on Lyft’s app. Nashville is the first city to implement the solution, with 60 cities to roll-out in total. Bolt introduces 5th gen scooter with better safety features and increased battery power. Bird tests motorised wheelchair attachment in NYC. Cool concept. Ola Electric scooter catches fire (watch) out of nowhere. Government has ordered a probe. 

Tembici (Brazil), a bike rental company, has three revenue streams: from users (55% of total); from corporate sponsorships; and ad revenue from Tembici’s station panels. These revenue streams are important: Tembici won’t expand unless it has a corporate sponsor to support growth. Present in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the company is now expanding to Columbia. 

Bristol expands e-scooter trials to the rest of Bristol. Salford extends trail to November. Voi extends Northampton trail to November. Voi re-launches in Madrid.  NYC’s shared e-scooter pilot will expand its service. Have your say. 

The cost of a shared e-scooter journey in the UK by Zag Daily indicates there has not been a ‘race to the bottom’ pricing in the UK. 

Autonomous 🤖

Ford Motor creates a new unit for autonomous technology development. Waymo opens driverless robotaxi testing to San Francisco employees. Soon Waymo would begin commercial robotaxi service to the general public. 

WeRide (China) raised $400M, bringing the total raised to $1.4bn and setting valuation at $4.4bn. Beep (US), autonomous shuttles deployment and management, raised $25M (total $45M). Driverless delivery startup Whale Dynamic (China) raised $2.5M and is targeting the US market. 

COMFORTDELGRO will be investing S$30 million in the research and development of autonomous driving capabilities over the next 5 years. An MOU with Mobileye will see electric robotaxis in Singapore as early as 2023. 

DRT / Microtransit / TaaS 🚐: Treepz celebrates 1 million bookings completed across Africa. ioki and Clever Shuttle work together to offer a DRT service in Neuburg. JB Bank (Pakistan) now works with Careem to commute its employees. 

Flying Vehicles 🚁: Volocopter completes manned eVTOL flights in France. The flight is designed to evaluate noise emissions, in preparation for the 2024 Olympics. Joby publishes Q4 results; says the crash it had recently won’t affect certification and that another prototype is continuing test flights. 

In Other News 📰

Kyte, to-your-door car-rental, raised $200M (total raised is now $239M) to expand to new markets, expecting to grow to 10,000 vehicles by next year.  

MaaS Global (Whim) acquired Brazilian Quicko in an all-share deal. Quickro is a major player in Brazil, but so far is concentrated on trip-planning and information, rather than ‘True MaaS’ features such as end-to-end planning, booking & payment. MaaS Global has so far raised $74M, and is planning on a Series C. 

Busie, a charter sales platform, raised a pre-seed financing round to support its US expansion. 

Sono Motors have equipped a public transport bus with solar panels. 

Price of Lithium-ion batteries has declined by 98% since 1991, from $7,523 (per kWh) to $132 in 2021. We’re waiting for prices to reach ±$100, which is when electric vehicles are supposed to cost the same as ICE (internal combustion engine) ones. 

Time’s 100 most influential companies.