Oh Good, Another Scooter Round

Morning Markets: What the world was missing, really, was another scooter round.

In breaking news today, Flash, a mobility-focused company that TechCrunch reports is starting with powered scooters, announced that it has raised a €55M Series A round, led by Target Global.

Thank goodness, another scooter round. I was getting worried there for a minute. After all, there isn’t much going on in the space.

To illustrate the barren funding conditions that electric scooter startups are struggling through, here’s a list of recent scooter rounds:

Yellow (Brazil) raised a $63 million Series A in September 2018.
TIER Mobility (Germany) raised a €25 million Series A in October 2018.
Beam (Singapore) raised a $6.4 million Seed round in October 2018.
Wind Mobility (Germany) raised a $22 million Seed round in November 2018.
Vogo (India) raised a $100 million round in December 2018, and more money in January.
Dott (The Netherlands) raised a €20 million round in December 2019.
Blue Duck Scooters (USA) raised a $5 million venture round in January 2019.

What a drought. I’m kidding. What a deluge.

The preceding string of bets feels similar to the Uber clone boom of a few years back, or a grip of other, similar moments in startup history. Here’s how it works: A good idea, or at least an idea that looks pretty good, blows up somewhere, and global markets replicate the concept while the increasingly global venture capital industry fuels the effort. And then everyone tries to sell to Uber.

I made up that last part, but I would bet you duckets to donuts that everyone in the above list would love to exit to Dara.

Don’t forget that Uber was said to have eyes on both Bird and Lime, two companies that are also both said to be in the market for hundreds of millions in new capital. Good luck, everyone.

Top Image Credit: Li-Anne Dias.