Early-stage micromobility has shifted over the previous couple of years. The cowboy antics of e-scooter corporations inflicting chaos in a bid to scale has pale together with these fats enterprise checks that are actually flowing to AI startups.
Tighter capital mixed with an existential have to create sustainable enterprise fashions has produced a brand new crop of micromobility startups.
This week, I attended Micromobility Europe in Brussels, the place I toured the convention’s so-called “Startup Enviornment” to get a way of what Europe’s early-stage micromobility ecosystem was bringing to the desk. Lots of the corporations I spoke to are attempting to fill the gaps of this trade — whether or not it’s by fleet administration software program, parking, or charging. Some, although, are simply constructing the automobiles they needed to journey.
All of them symbolize the following part of the ever-evolving micromobility trade.
Convoy
Picture Credit:Convoy
E-cargo bikes are sometimes marketed as making dad and mom’ lives simpler, however most are heavy, cumbersome, and costly. U.Okay.-based Convoy, which was based in 2023, is making an attempt to surpass these obstacles with a clip-on cargo conversion equipment for bikes and e-bikes that may carry as much as two babies.
The group behind Convoy has a various background that ranges from girls’s well being tech and e-bikes to the ex-CEO of Dyson.
“We now have labored collectively for 10 years constructing the primary hands-free wearable breast pump,” Tatiana Escobar-Peake, Convoy’s chief income officer, advised TechCrunch. “For a decade, we’ve got been obsessing over why life for brand spanking new dad and mom must be so depressing?”
Convoy’s attachment fastens simply to the again wheel of an present bike, shops simply, and solely weighs about 26 kilos. It affords a 250-watt motor that turns pedal bikes into e-bikes, in addition to rear-wheel steering that preserves the turning circle of the bike.
Convoy is launching preorders for the €2,200 ($2,500) trailer subsequent week. The startup has raised modest funding and secured sufficient demand from European distributors this 12 months to start out eager about increasing to Japan and the U.S. subsequent 12 months.
Azora Cost
Azora Cost co-founders Caroline and Johannes GoeckelImage Credit:Rebecca Bellan
Based one and a half years in the past by brother and sister duo Caroline and Johannes Goeckel, Germany-based Azora Cost is constructing solar-powered charging and parking stations for e-bikes. Azora Cost isn’t making an attempt to instantly meet the wants of shared micromobility operators as a lot as serving common individuals who personal an e-bike that may be safely charged and parked in public.
“There aren’t any options like this,” Caroline Goeckel advised TechCrunch. “In London, for instance, there’s no method I can park my bike someplace and know that it’s protected. It’s simply gonna get stolen.”
Azora’s flagship product, Azora Arc, is a lined charging station that may match inside one parking area. It options 5 built-in photo voltaic panels and 4 charging stations that may accommodate as much as eight bikes, and could be tailored for promoting. It’s designed to be a plug-and-play answer, appropriate for varied places like parking garages and metropolis streets.
Azora needs to promote these stations at a retail value of €28,000 ($32,000) — or €15,999 ($18,400) for the Azora Stream that doesn’t have a canopy — to cities, house complexes, buying facilities and different companies. They hope to boost €250,000 by enterprise capital or family and friends, emphasizing the necessity for experience in B2B distribution. A pilot program is about to start out in Heidelberg, Germany, to check the primary prototype’s viability.
Fleetser
Fleetser is a European-based micromobility market that buys, sells, and refurbishes shared electrical bikes and scooters. The corporate, based in late 2024, caters to each new and established operators, providing assist with provide chain, software program administration, and batteries.
Fleetser’s shopper base contains sellers trying to offload {hardware} and new operators looking for cost-effective entry into the market.
“We’re the proper market to assist somebody that desires to start out out, or perhaps a massive operator that desires to broaden affordably,” Alexe Stefan, managing companion at Fleetser, advised TechCrunch.
The corporate operates remotely with warehouses in Romania and the Netherlands. It has offered 6,000 bikes this 12 months and is scaling organically by market demand and word-of-mouth. Fleetser additionally affords logistics assist for shifting and delivering bikes, and was seen chatting with the founders of Detroit-based Bloom — which needs to tackle all of the exhausting, behind-the-scenes work for e-bike startups — on the occasion.
Swap
Italian startup Swap is bringing AI and simulation to fleet planning and fleet administration for cities and shared mobility operators — together with a pilot with Lime. The startup affords two core merchandise: Urbiverse generates artificial knowledge and simulations for logistics and mobility, whereas City Copilot affords real-time demand forecasting, fleet rebalancing, and operations optimization.
Then there’s the AI agent that’s “in a position to entry all of the instruments of the stakeholders,” from Slack to CRM apps, in order that customers can ask “cross-section questions.”
“So you possibly can ask it somelike like, please ship a notification on Slack each time that the fleet battery common degree goes under 40% on this neighborhood, you possibly can you ask for a report of the standing of my fleet as compared with public transport disruption,” Alessandro Ciociola, Swap’s AI officer, advised TechCrunch.
Based in 2020, the corporate has raised practically $1 million, together with from the European Institute of Expertise.
Zapp
Zapp, an excellent app from Bosnia and Herzegovina, affords meals supply, shared micromobility, bundle supply, hire a automotive, and taxi providers. Zapp launched in 2020 and has expanded to 10 cities in Bosnia — the place Uber nonetheless doesn’t have an enormous presence — and plans to enter Croatia this 12 months.
What’s completely different about Zapp is that it operates a franchise mannequin, an concept that got here from CEO Martin Mikolic, the previous CEO of gaming cafe franchise Pleasant Fireplace.
“Within the Balkans, there’s not loads of competitors [from established players like Uber], and the main target for our franchise is smaller cities under 1 million folks as a result of the idea is to empower native folks, as a result of native folks know finest what the shopper wants in that metropolis,” stated Mikolic.
J2R
co-founders of j2r Martin allaIre and jean madauleImage Credit:Rebecca Bellan
Jean Madaule was a enterprise analyst for the online game trade who needed to purchase an electrical bike, however couldn’t discover something in the marketplace that met his wants of traceability, reparability, and a cool design.
A self-taught engineer, he began constructing bikes in his storage till he got here up with what’s now J2R’s flagship mannequin. J2R, which was based in 2022, named its first electrical bike Smol — in a nod to its small measurement. Smol has a pointy, radical design that has futuristic dirtbike styling with a minimalist attraction, which is enhanced by options just like the uncovered suspension.
“It’s a toy, however for the town,” Madaule stated. “Mainly for people who find themselves actually city and into road tradition. I assume that’s why shortage advertising and marketing works for them. They really feel prefer it’s a drop of one thing tremendous unique.”
The group launched a presale marketing campaign in September with a price ticket of €9,450 ($10,800). They plan to ship 15 numbered items by the tip of the 12 months and 100 items in January 2026. Smol is assembled in France with elements primarily sourced from the EU.
Hint Mobility
As the previous founding father of German bike-sharing operation Velocity Mobility, Tobias Meurer understands the ache factors of the shared micromobility enterprise. In April 2023 he returned with a brand new startup, Hint Mobility, which gives enterprise intelligence providers for bike and car-sharing operators.
Hint Mobility affords a subscription-based software program service that tracks key metrics equivalent to person registrations, bookings, automobile utilization, and revenues. It additionally integrates publicly accessible knowledge and affords an AI agent for personalized insights and operational recommendations.
The corporate’s goal shopper is smaller operators that don’t have their very own reserving platforms however quite depend on white label options, which Hint attracts knowledge from to give you its personal insights for shoppers.
“Profitability is an enormous subject for everybody within the enterprise and to enhance profitability, or to first attain profitability, you will need to know the mechanisms behind your price and income construction and the way these are linked,” Meurer stated.
