Mexico-based electric scooter startup Grin has reportedly merged with Brazil-based Ride to further carry forward the company’s expansion across Latin America.
As of now, the Y Combinator-backed Grin only operates in Mexico City, but it has plans to expand to other cities throughout Latin America. This recent merger will enable Grin to do this as early as next week as Ride already operates in São Paulo.
The development has come shortly after Grin raised a $45 million Series A round. Following the merger, Ride will operate under the Grin brand in Brazil and the Ride team will be in charge of all of Grin’s operations in Brazil. The ride is currently the only shared electric scooter operator in all of Brazil, but that will soon change when Yellow deploys its scooters.
“We definitely want to be global,” Grin co-founder Sergio Romo said. “I don’t think you can become a ten-billion-dollar company if you don’t go global. I think LATAM might actually be the best market — there’s huge density and a huge market combined with Europe. And who knows, we might pop up in an American city soon if we do a good job. But this is definitely in our heads. This is engineered to be a global play.”
Along with this, Grin has also partnered with a Colombia-based on-demand delivery startup called Rappi that raised $200 million back in August. This partnership will help the company to boost its expansion across Latin America. Also, it will enable Rappi customers to unlock Grin scooters through the Rappi app.