super pedestrian electric scooter
The startup known for its self-diagnostic software is shutting down its U.S.-based scooter-sharing business and considering selling its European operations, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
Alexander Berg, the company’s director of U.S. operations, confirmed the news to his team on a Zoom call Friday afternoon. Berg said the reason for the closure was economic, but declined to provide further details. “Investors have also put in money to keep us going to this day,” he said on a conference call. “It’s not because I didn’t try hard enough.”
The closure comes as the startup raises equity and debt funding including investors from Jefferies, Antara Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, and FM Capital, in addition to existing backers such as Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and Citi. This comes just 18 months after the company raised $125 million in Series C funding. Via Citi Impact Fund.
However, since then, the electric scooter industry has been in a somewhat difficult situation. Bird’s valuation plummeted after its listing, and the company was forced to exit multiple markets.
Superpedestrian itself has experienced a series of layoffs, including one just months after the end of its Series C round. The latest incident happened earlier this month, according to a post on LinkedIn.
The company pulled out of Chicago in September, citing competitive difficulties, but said its scooters operate in more than 60 cities in 11 countries. A representative for the city of Waco, Texas, where Superpedestrian recently launched a scooter squad, said by phone Friday that he had no knowledge of the impending closure.
Superpedestrian used technology, specifically diagnostic and safety software, to differentiate itself from competitors like Bird and Tier. The company strengthened its technology efforts with the acquisition of Navmatic in July 2021.
Using Navmatic’s technology, we developed and deployed a so-called pedestrian protection safety system. This system is a feature designed to detect and correct unsafe riding behavior, such as riding on sidewalks, in real time. Superpedestrian had planned to build a new scooter with its own branded pedestrian protection features and roll it out to 25 cities in the U.S. and Europe in 2022. Initial rollouts were expected to begin in pedestrian-dense cities in the U.S. and U.K. by early spring, the company said.
The story is unfolding…
Source: techcrunch.com
