Thursday, March 28

Tag: bike sharing

Yulu Raises $8 Mn Funding from Bajaj Auto
FUNDING

Yulu Raises $8 Mn Funding from Bajaj Auto

Shared e-mobility service provider Yulu has secured $8 million (approximately Rs 57.2 crore) investment from two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto. As part of the tie-up, Yulu will source electric two-wheelers from Bajaj Auto which have been co-designed and manufactured exclusively for shared micro-mobility, Yulu said in a statement. Bajaj Auto will also consider facilitating vehicle finance needs of Yulu for a large-scale deployment of its micro-mobility electric vehicles, it added. “We believe that… congestion reduction and pollution control will drive the segment of shared micro-mobility in the future,” Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said. That, coupled with the expansion of mass rapid transport systems like Metro in large cities, will further boost the demand for flexible...
Alibaba-backed Ride Hailing company Raised “millions of funds”
FUNDING

Alibaba-backed Ride Hailing company Raised “millions of funds”

Alibaba-backed Hellobike which is one of the largest bike-sharing apps announced that it raised “millions of funds” in a new funding round. The company declined to reveal details on the funding amount and use of the proceeds. The round was led by Ant Financial,  the financial affiliate of Alibaba and maker behind digital wallet Alipay, and Primavera Capital, a Chinese investment firm that’s backed other mobility startups including electric automaker Xpeng and car trading platform Souche. The fledgling startup also got SoftBank interested in shelling out an investment, The Information reported in November. The fresh capital arrived about a year after it secured $350 million from investors including Ant Financial. It’s interesting to note that while both Ofo and Hellobike fall und...
China’s Mobike CEO Resigns Due to Uncertain Future for Bike Sharing
Automobile, News

China’s Mobike CEO Resigns Due to Uncertain Future for Bike Sharing

Hu Weiwei, co-founder of Beijing Mobike Technology Co Ltd, has stepped down as its CEO, placing more uncertainty on the future of the bike-sharing startup. The move followed shortly after Mobike's cash-strapped rival Ofo Inc came under fire for stalling on deposit refunds. Once touted as investor darlings, the two companies seem to be pedaling toward an unforeseeable future due to overexpansion and struggling to find profitable business models. Mobike said Hu resigned for personal reasons, and Liu Yu, president of Mobike, will take her place. Hu's departure means that most of Mobike's founding team members have now left the three-year-old company. In April, Mobike was acquired by China's largest provider of on-demand online services, Meituan-Dianping. In November, Wang Xing, CEO ...
China’s Ofo Faces User Complaints Against Revenue Raising Strategy
CHINA

China’s Ofo Faces User Complaints Against Revenue Raising Strategy

China’s leading bike-sharing platform Ofo is again into the headlines due to customer’s complaints regarding its new revenue raising strategy. It has been reported that when the users open the Ofo app to unlock a share bike, they have to first watch a five-second video advertisement. Many app users have got annoyed by this and have socially stated that the videos will be a drain on their mobile data allowance. A similar case happened just a few days ago with Netflix where the people were posting annoying tweets against Netflix promo videos that could neither be skipped not muted. The mobile applications these days are finding new ways of promoting themselves in every possible way. These insiders were cited by Beijing Youth Daily as saying that Ofo might lose customers because of thei...
Bicycle Sharing Startup Mobike Gets Funding From Temasek, Others
FUNDING

Bicycle Sharing Startup Mobike Gets Funding From Temasek, Others

Chinese bicycle-sharing startup Mobike said on Monday it has raised funding in a new round led by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] and hedge fund Hillhouse Capital, bringing its total new funding in 2017 to more than $300 million. The Shanghai-founded startup said last month it raised $215 million from a range of investors including Tencent Holdings Ltd, Warburg Pincus LLC and Chinese travel firm Ctrip.com International Ltd. Mobike also announced an undisclosed investment from Foxconn last month, in a bid to double the number of bikes it produced last year to 10 million in 2017. A spokesman for the startup declined to confirm the amount of the most recent investment. Mobike has not shared its valuation. Mobike allows users to find, ride and pay for company bic...