- General
- June 6, 2019
- 5 minutes read
Bird Reportedly In Talks To Acquire Scoot
A Scoot scooter image: Scoot According to a TechCrunch report, Bird — the $2 billion valued Santa Monica-based startup known for…
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| A Scoot scooter
image: Scoot
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According to a TechCrunch report, Bird — the $2 billion valued Santa Monica-based startup known for its on-demand scooters — is in talks to acquire Scoot, a competitor that has raised roughly $47 million in total funding, and was last valued at $71 million. TechCrunch says Bird has agreed to acquire Scoot although a deal is likely not yet closed. If it pulls through, this will be Bird’s first full acquisition.
Scoot operates in the cities of San Francisco, Barcelona, and Santiago, with a fleet of manual kick scooters, electric scooters and electric bikes that users of its mobile app can access. The company has done more than 2.5 million total rides. Its backers include Vision Ridge Capital, India’s Mahindra Partners, SunPower founder Tom Dinwoodie and Scout Ventures.
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| People celebrate on Scoot electric scooters
image: Scoot
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Bird — led by former Uber and Lyft executive Travis VanderZanden — on the other hand is much bigger, having raised $415 million in total funding according to Crunchbase data. Its backers include Accel, Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Tusk Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures and Greycroft.
Bird has been spreading its wings beyond on-demand scooters. The company recently began selling a $1,300 custom scooter with longer range directly to its users, who then operate it on its network. Bird also recently unveiled a new electric bike that’ll be added to its fleet of on-demand vehicles starting this summer.
