Trucking is a vital industry and yet the majority of operations are operating on outdated platforms. AtoB thinks it has the solution and co-founder Harshita Arora says the company is essentially Stripe for transportation.

I’m excited to have her and Eric Tarczynski of Contrary Capital speaking on an upcoming TechCrunch Live taking place on March 22 at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET. TechCrunch’s Rebecca Bellan is talking to them about the growth and current state of the company. AtoB has raised $175 million over three rounds of funding. The latest was a $75 million Series B, which closed in November 2021. Tarczynski invested in this round.

Register Here

Before founding AtoB, Arora founded and sold Harshita Apps after her app, Crypto Price Tracker, became an App Store hit. Forbes named her to its 2023 30 Under 30 list for the Manufacturing & Industry category.

Did I mention she’s just 21? Come to hear about AtoB, but stay to hear her story.

This TechCrunch Live event is free to attend. Register here for the hourlong event. The virtual doors open at 11:30 a.m. PDT for networking and the interview starts at 12:00 p.m. PDT. If you register, you can register for Pitch Practice and ask Eric and Harshita questions.

Hear why AtoB calls itself Stripe for trucking on TechCrunch Live by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

BlaBlaCar has announced that it plans to acquire Klaxit, a smaller French startup. Klaxit is a carpooling service so that you don’t have to drive your car to work every day. BlaBlaCar has its own commuting service called BlaBlaCar Daily. Klaxit will complement this service after the acquisition closes.

BlaBlaCar is better known for its long-distance ride-sharing service. The company matches empty car seats with passengers going in the same direction. It’s an alternative to trains or buses when you want to travel to another city for a vacation or if you want to visit your family.

Many people have also relied on BlaBlaCar for rides between smaller cities as there isn’t a train station in every small city. Over time, the company added other services, such as a bus marketplace with the acquisition of Ouibus and an online bus ticketing platform with the acquisition of Busfor.

In 2017, the company launched a new app and service called BlaBlaLines. This time, the company wanted to match drivers heading to work with other employees looking for a transportation method. The app has been rebranded to BlaBlaCar Daily shortly after its launch.

But BlaBlaCar wasn’t the only company thinking about commutes. Other startups like Klaxit and Karos have also been working on similar services. That’s because daily commutes represent a significant portion of car rides. And yet, most people are alone in their car when they head to work.

Optimizing those rides is a good way to save money on daily commutes. It’s also better for the environment and Local governments love the idea as it improves traffic conditions.

There are several ways to monetize a service like that. End users can pay riders directly. Companies can contribute to the service as it can be considered as a benefit. Local governments can subsidize the services as carpooling contribute to reducing road infrastructure budget.

Klaxit in particular has signed a ton of partnerships with local governments since its inception in 2012. More than 50 local governments and 350 companies have partnered with the platform to foster carpooling. In 2022, Klaxit facilitated 2.6 million rides on its platform.

BlaBlaCar says that it plans to merge BlaBlaCard Daily and Klaxit in 2024. While it will increase the user base, there’s still a long road ahead as there are more than 10 million people driving to work alone every day in France.

BlaBlaCar to acquire Klaxit, a ride-sharing service for daily commutes by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Brussels-based startup Cowboy has been in the news lately for its cash burn rate. But the company wants to control its narrative again with some product and business news. Cowboy is launching a new feature called ‘AdaptivePower’, which automatically adjusts the power of the motor depending on the current slope and weather conditions.

Cowboy’s electric bikes are pretty straightforward — there is no gear and there are no + and – button to adjust the power of the motor. The company thinks riding a bike should be as easy as jumping on the saddle and putting a foot on the peddle.

But that minimalistic approach has some drawbacks. While the default power mode works fine in most cities, it’s not enough in hilly cities like San Francisco.

Instead of releasing a new bike with gears or buttons, the company is leveraging the sensors in the existing Cowboy lineup, such as the gyroscope and accelerometer. While these sensors were originally included for crash and theft detection, they can be leveraged to make the bike smarter. Based on the current torque, speed and other factors, Cowboy automatically increases the power delivery of the electric motor or reduces it.

This feature will be rolled out to Cowboy’s latest models that were released a couple of years ago — the C4 and its step-through version the C4ST. It will be an over-the-air software update. Once the update is installed, you’ll be able to choose between the ‘adaptive’ and ‘eco’ options in the mobile app for the motor power settings.

In other product news, the company is also releasing some new colors for the C4ST as you can see in the image at the bottom of this article.

New funding round at a lower valuation

In January 2022, Cowboy announced an $80 million funding round. A bit more than a year later, the company is raising more money. But it isn’t disclosing the dollar figure of this new funding round.

Of course, things have changed drastically for tech startups. VC firms aren’t deploying capital as rapidly and startup founders sometimes struggle to raise their next funding round. For a hardware company like Cowboy, supply chain issues and inflation also had some impact on the company’s margins.

A few weeks ago, Cowboy co-founder and CTO Tanguy Goretti said in a spicy LinkedIn post that the company was “in the process of closing a €15M round” (that’s $15.8 million at today’s exchange rate). From what I’ve heard, Cowboy ended up raising a bit less than that, but an equity crowdfunding part is going to round up that round.

He also added in his LinkedIn post that this recent funding round is a down round. The company’s total valuation is down by 44% compared to the previous funding round. In other words, it’s a long and windy road for Cowboy and the past few months have been more difficult than expected.

But the startup’s existing investors chose to invest more money in the company, which should improve the company’s runway right before the peak season of Cowboy sales (between March and October). After some logistics challenges a year or two ago, Cowboy’s margins are also back to where they should be.

With AdaptivePower, Cowboy can now think about other potential vehicles as well. For instance, this feature would work particularly well with cargo bikes. But there’s nothing to announce on this front for now.

“2022 has been our best year ever with €41 million in revenue and sales growing by 2.7x year over year,” co-founder and CEO Adrien Roose said in a statement. Cowboy has sold 50,000 since 2018. And 2022 was a great year as the company told me it managed to sell 20,000 bikes in a single year.

Image Credits: Cowboy

E-bike maker Cowboy raises new funding round and launches AdaptivePower by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

The automotive industry is starting to show some signs of recovery after a big contraction during the Covid-19 pandemic, and carmakers planning for the next five years are looking at what new features might help them eek out more sales. Envisics — a U.K. startup that designs holographic in-car technology that projects navigation, safety alerts and other data on the inside of the windscreen (commonly described as heads-up display, or HUD) — is today announcing $50 million in funding, as it vies to be a part of that conversation.

The funds will be used both to carry out work with current customers on Envisics’ existing holographic technology, with customers including GM; and to continue developing the next generation of the platform, which Dr. Jamieson Christmas, the founder and CEO, says come in a smaller form factor that will make it possible to build into cars of all sizes (and price points), and with more enhanced video capabilities.

“Our next-generation technology unlocks much more of the holographic potential,” he said in an interview. “We really are on the path to delivering that Star Wars vision of the world, with [in-car] 3-D volumetric experiences.”

This latest funding, which more specifically is being described as “over” $50 million, is coming from a raft of strategic backers that include Hyundai Mobis, InMotion Ventures (the investment arm of Jaguar Land Rover, and Stellantis. Envisics says it is “part of” a Series C. Even with the current clouds hanging over the market, Milton Keynes-based Envisics confirmed to us that it is still in talks with other investors to raise more.

Yet the $50 million being announced today has already driven up the valuation of Envisics to $500 million — double the $250 million valuation Envisics had in 2020, when it raised $50 million in a Series B. (That round that also included Hyundai Mobis, alongside General Motors Ventures, SAIC Motors and Van Tuyl Companies — the family office of the Van Tuyl Group, which specializes in automotive dealerships and related services. All of these remain shareholders, Envisics said.)

Envisics has been carving out a solid place for itself among auto manufacturers. Christmas told us in an interview that Envisics is “working with just about everybody” at the moment, although he declined to give names beyond Jaguar Land Rover, which was the first OEM customer for Envisics’ technology; and GM, which has confirmed that its Lyriq electric Cadillacs will integrate Envisics’ second generation displays.

Image Credits: Envisics (opens in a new window) under a CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new window) license.

But all the same, the startup is facing market challenges on two fronts. We are in an era where we have seen many automotive technology plays stall or run out of gas altogether. Be it shut downs of high profile efforts like Argo AI, or small but promising startups like Broadmann17; or more scrutiny for those still standing like Cruise, it feels like nothing has been spared. Equally we have yet to see any great businesses built around augmented reality technology, which includes the HUD market.

Hanging over both industries is the wider economy and the impact that will have not just on more automotive sales, but consumers willing to pay a premium to load in extras like augmented reality displays into new vehicles.

Despite these hurdles, there are some promising signs, too.

The GM deal, for example, is seemingly all coming in on time. Back in 2020, Christmas said that Envisics’ first commercial products would come out in 2023, and Christmas confirmed this week that this is still the plan. The first HUDs are “remarkably, absolutely on track to be released this year,” he said.

While the Lyric will most certainly be a high-end, premium vehicle, it’s a start. The startup has also inked deals with the likes of Panasonic Automotive Systems, the major automotive supplier that is a division of the consumer electronics giant Panasonic, which points to future rollouts across a wider range of models and price points.

As for what is appearing on these HUDs, for the moment, Christmas said that the initial focus — no pun intended — is on need-to-know, rather than nice-to-know, information for the driver: safety, vehicle status and navigation alerts are priorities; alerts for new albums or podcasts dropping on Spotify are not. Overall, it’s still optimizing what the best, and safest, experience might be for drivers.

Although car makers originally thought that drivers would want screens in vehicles that were as big an pervasive as their computers, phones and TVs are today, in fact large displays have started to fall out of favor because they can become too distracting, and often not even necessary, Christmas pointed out. The same goes for HUDs and the real estate that their data would occupy on the windscreen.

Christmas described the question of how much real estate is too much “the single biggest pain point that car companies are facing” when it comes to questions of how to build out interactive, connected experiences for drivers.

“We’re working hard, obviously, to qualify the tech,” he said. The company notes that while AR HUD is still a very small part of the overall OEM market, accounting for just 1.6 million units in 2022, it will grow to 19.1 million by 2032.

In the meantime, strategic backers see investing in Envisics now as a good way to get early access to its technology for when they are ready to deploy it.

“Hyundai Mobis is very pleased to continue our strategic partnership with Envisics to jointly develop AR-HUDs and to improve the in-car experience.” said Younghoon Han, VP and head of electronic control and convenience, Hyundai Mobis, in a statement. “Hyundai Mobis expects to provide next-generation AR-HUDs with cutting-edge holographic technology, and to deliver an intuitive, safe, and convenient HMI to global automakers by strengthening our partnership with Envisics.”

Envisics raises $50M at a $500M valuation for its in-car holographic tech by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Ford today provided a statement to TechCrunch detailing its plan to restart F-150 Lightning production. The manufacturing lines will start rolling again on March 13. The automaker says that will allow for the EV’s battery pack to be reworked to include SK On’s battery cells. Ford also says it will continue to hold already-produced vehicles as it works “through engineering and parts updates.”

This comes weeks after Ford paused the production and shipment of F-150 Lightning for an unspecified battery concern. On March 14 Ford said the initial stoppage occurred after a vehicle failed a post-production quality control test at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. The company tells TechCrunch it is unaware of any incidences of this issue in the field. As a result, dealers can still sell Lightning models on the lot.

Since launching the vehicle less than a year ago, Ford has only issued one recall for the vehicle, and it was related to a tire pressure sensor. Ford has yet to issue a recall or dealer notice associated with this instance.

Ford paused production of the vehicle as it was beginning to scale production numbers. It said previously it intended to make 150,000 Lightning models by the end of 2023. Ford reported it shipped 13,258 Lightning models in 2022.

Ford to restart F-150 Lightning production on March 13 by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

Autonomous aircraft have long been thought of as having the most potential, though not in the realm of glitzy people-carrying drones so much as the more sedate world of cargo. It’s here where the economic savings could be most significant. Large, long-range drones built specifically for cargo have the potential to be faster, cheaper and produce fewer CO2 emissions than conventional aircraft, enabling same-day shipping over very long distances. In fact, the “flying delivering van” is considered the holy grail by many cargo operators.

In this space there are a number of companies operating, and these include: ElroyAir (California, raised $56M), hybrid electric, VTOL, so so therefore short range; Natilus (California, funding undisclosed) uses a blended wing body, and is a large, longer term project entailing probably quite high costs in certification and production. Then there is Beta (Vermont, $886M raised) which is an electric VTOL.

Into this space, out of Bulgaria (but HQ’d in London), comes Dronamics. The startup has already attained a license to operate in Europe, and plans to run a “cargo drone airline” using drones built specifically for the purpose. Dronamics claims its flagship “Black Swan” model will be able to carry 350 kg (770 lb) at a distance of up to 2,500 km (1,550 miles) faster, cheaper and with less emissions than currently available options.

It’s now coming out with the news that it’s raised a total of $40 million in pre-Series A funding from VCs and Angels.

Dronamics has so far raised from Founders Factory, Speedinvest, Eleven Capital, and the Strategic Development Fund (SDF), the investment arm of the Tawazun Council, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Svilen Rangelov, co-Founder and CEO at Dronamics explained to me over email: “We’re the size of a delivery van (Renault Kangoo / VW Caddy) and we can cross all of Europe in 12 hours or less at a fraction of the cost of airfreight. That means we operate in a space between airfreight and road freight, and by creating a faster, cheaper, greener middle-mile, we can help customers achieve tremendous savings.”

“Right now the same-day radius of a fulfillment center is 2hrs drive… The only way to expand same-day coverage is to use a longer-distance low-cost middle-mile drone (a flying delivering van). With our range we can cover all of Europe same-day from a single warehouse — no one is able to offer that, traditional or drone competitor,” he added.

He said that unlike competitors, they are already licensed to fly (LUC – Light UAS Operator Certificate, under the new EU drone regulations), its cost profile is lower, and it sells capacity not aircraft: “This allows the feedback loop between R&D and operations to be much shorter and we can innovate and iterate quicker.”

SDF venture capital division’s investment in Dronamics will now mean the creation of a UAE-based joint venture, creating a Dronamics’ operations in the UAE as a hub for the Middle East and North Africa region.

Abdulla Naser Al Jaabari, Managing Director and CEO of SDF said in a statement: “When it comes to Dronamics, their economics are very promising and potential users of Dronamics would benefit from quick and efficient cargo deliveries.”

The $40 million raised to date is in addition to the €2.5 million ($2.7 million) grant Dronamics was awarded by the European Commission under its European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator program, and the EIC’s material commitment to support Dronamics’ Series A round with another €12.5 million ($13.45 million).

Autonomous cargo drone airline Dronamics reveals it’s raised $40M, pre-Series A by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

Ford paused the F-150 Lightning’s production and shipments due to a potential battery issue, the company said today. The scope and nature of the battery concern is unknown at this time. The stoppage started at the beginning of last week, and Ford has yet to estimate when it will restart production.

According to a statement provided by Ford, the stoppage occurred after a vehicle failed a post-production quality control test. The company tells TechCrunch it is unaware of any incidences of this issue in the field. As a result, dealers can still sell Lightning models on the lot.

Since launching the vehicle less than a year ago, Ford has only issued one recall for the vehicle, and it was related to a tire pressure sensor. Ford has yet to issue a recall or notice associated with this instance.

This manufacturing pause comes as Ford is ramping up production of the Lightning. Ford said previously it intended to make 150,000 Lightning models by the end of 2023. Ford reported it shipped 13,258 Lightning models in 2022.

The F-150 Lightning is leading the market in the growing EV pickup war. Cross-town rival General Motors released its first EV pickup, the high-end Hummer EV, around the same time as the F-150 Lightning but is being manufactured at a much slower pace. GM’s mass-market Silverado EV is scheduled for a public release in the 2024 model year. RAM just revealed its production-bound RAM 1500 REV, which is expected for the 2025 model year. The Rivian R1T also launched in 2022 as the upstart company spun up its limited production. As for the Tesla Cybertruck? Ask Elon. It’s MIA though Tesla will still take $100 for a reservation.

Ford halts production and shipments of electric F-150 Lightning over battery concerns by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

RAM used some of its 2023 Super Bowl ad time to show off some goodies built into the upcoming electric RAM pickup. The RAM 1500 REV, as it’s called, is Stellantis’ first entry into the growing electric pickup wars. The concept debuted last month at the 2023 Consumer Electronic Show, but few details, including interior features, were revealed then. This is the first time the company has publicly displayed the production version.

According to the Super Bowl ad, the RAM 1500 REV will be packed with screens and, surprisingly, buttons and knobs. The interior of the electric RAM is similar to that of the gas-powered RAM.

The center stack features a giant, vertical touchscreen flanked by physical buttons for climate control, media playback, and truck controls. In addition, there are three screens in the front — dash cluster, infotainment screen, and even a screen for the passenger embedded under the passenger-side airbag (this is available in the Jeep Wagoneers and Grand Cherokee). Like traditional RAM trucks, gear selection appears to be done through a sizeable twisty knob mounted on the dash.

[gallery ids="2484406,2484405,2484404,2484403,2484402,2484401,2484400,2484399,2484398,2484397,2484396,2484395,2484394,2484393,2484392"]

Last month, the RAM 1500 REV concept featured a dual motor affair and 350kW fast charging at CES. It’s still being determined if that same setup will appear in the production version.

There are still two significant details missing: price and electric range. There’s still time, though. The RAM 1500 REV is scheduled for a 2025 model release, which will likely hit dealerships in late 2024. By that time, the RAM 1500 REV will face established competitors. Ford started selling its electric pickup, the F-150 Lightning, in 2022 and is rumored to building
another EV pickup based on the compact Maverick. General Motors started selling its first electric pickup, the Hummer EV in 2022 and will begin rolling out the more-affordable Silverado EV in the second half 2023. The Tesla Cybertruck is still unknown. The company debuted the Cybertruck at a flash event in 2019, but it keeps pushing the release. As of publication, Tesla allows customers to pre-order a Cybertruck but does not list an estimated delivery date.

Stallantis has yet to reveal details about the RAM 1500 REV’s platform. It’s unclear now if it’s build on the BEV-centric STLA Frame platform or something different. This detail is critical for hauling and towing capabilities.

RAM is ready to take customers’ money for a spot in line. It costs $100 to reserve the right to pre-order the truck, also granting access to exclusive events, news, and information.

Also, I have questions and concerns about the new giant, glowing RAM logo. The typeface and kerning are slightly different from the current logo, and it looks a lot like the new Kia logo, which isn’t going over very well.

The electric RAM 1500 REV is packed with screens and, surprisingly, buttons and knobs by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

Otonomo, connected automotive company that has seen its stock price plummet since going public in 2021, has announced that it is coming together with Urgent.ly, a roadside assistance tech provider, in a reverse merger. The two are combining in an all-share deal that will see Urgently shareholders take 67% of the company and Otonomo shareholders take 33%. The stock, which had traded under OTMO on Nasdaq, will now trade under the ULY ticker.

Otonomo went public in 2021 on Nasdaq in a SPAC deal that valued the company at $1.4 billion at its debut. But the writing for it (and indeed SPACs) may have been on the wall, though: by the end of the first day of trading, its market cap had dipped to $1.1 billion, and that was definitely not the bottom: currently the company’s market cap is just over $70 million.

The deal is expected to close in in Q3 2023, the companies said.

It’s been a bumpy road for smart mobility technology — with macroeconomic pressures, the slower development and rollouts of next-generation technology like autonomous systems, and the cooling tech investing market all making it harder for younger businesses to sustain and grow their businesses. Otonomo is perhaps the latest casualty in that pile-up but it may not be the last.

We are asking how many people from Otonomo are joining with the deal and will update this story with that detail when and if we get it. The companies note that the acquisition will result in “meaningful” “cost savings” so there will be some cutting done in the process regardless.

The companies plan to merge their technologies and work on what they describe as “cross selling”. Urgent.ly’s investors include BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche, and Otonomo’s investors in the past have included Avis, Alliance Holdings. SK Holdings and Bessemer. Otonomo today provides services like fleet management, data that feeds diagnostics, mapping, traffic and safety management services, and more. It’s not the hardware provider that creates the data, but it offers a platform that’s able to harness and organize the data produced by vehicles. As we have previously written, once the data is securely collected, the platform modifies it so companies can use it to develop apps and services for fleets, smart cities and individual customers. The platform also enables GDPR, CCPA and other privacy regulation-compliant solutions using both personal and aggregate data.

Urgently meanwhile has a smaller but more focused scope: it provides technology to help connect car owners with roadside assistance services.

One of these businesses is currently significantly bigger than the other. Urgently estimates that 2022 revenue was more than $185 million, up 25% versus 2021. Otonomo is due to report Q4 and full-year earnings on February 15 but last quarter the company posted just $2 million in revenue and noted that ARR in that quarter was $6.7 million. That speaks to the struggles it has had in the market to realize the potential it’s promised to deliver.

The company, when merged, will have operations in 26 countries and have some 100 partnership deals with OEMs, transportation and mapping, insurance, fleet and rental sectors, it said. In total that will cover 70 million vehicles and over 80,000 estimated connected assistance service professionals. It will also have 36 registered and pending patents.

But notwithstanding the fact that this coverage does not directly translate to monetizeable services, it’s also quite small. The companies say that the total addressable market today for connected vehicle technology is 1.7 billion connected vehicles in the next decade, a $100 billion market.

The idea is that bringing forces together creates a more compelling, larger offering to the market and more routes to capturing business within it.

“This transaction enables us to transform the current reactive roadside experience and deliver on the promise of connected mobility,” said Matt Booth, CEO of Urgently, in a statement. “The addition of Otonomo’s mobility data uniquely positions Urgently to capitalize on the connections between vehicle data and the fleet, insurance and roadside assistance sectors to provide real-world services that will improve customer experiences and safety.”

”Merging Otonomo and Urgently is an exciting step for Otonomo that advances our vision of empowering the future of mobility and connected services,” added Ben Volkow, CEO and co-founder of Otonomo. “Mobility assistance is a real-world application for connected vehicle data and, by combining both companies’ technologies, we will provide new solutions for the betterment of customer safety, security and accessibility.”

Post-deal, Matt Booth will continue to be CEO with Tim Huffmyer will be CFO of the combined company. Ben Volkow will join the board and be an advisor.

Otonomo, the mobility data business valued at $1.4B in 2021 SPAC IPO, acquired by Urgent.ly as market cap dips to $70M by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing scrutiny by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding his specific comments and efforts to promote the automaker’s claims regarding its “self-driving” capabilities, Bloomberg reports. The SEC investigation into Musk is part of its overall efforts to determine whether Tesla has run afoul of its rules in promoting its FSD and Autopilot offering.

The SEC doesn’t typically comment on any ongoing investigations prior to formally filing suit, and has not commented on this case in particular. But recent revelations may explain why Musk is in their crosshairs when it comes to Tesla “self-driving” technology: Last week, testimony given by a senior engineer on the Tesla team working on its Autopilot software revealed that a video the company released in 2016 purporting to show a Tesla vehicle driving itself was in fact staged. Reporting by Bloomberg later revealed that the video was overseen and directed by Musk himself.

Of course, the SEC’s domain isn’t safety claims, but it does take issue with public companies or company executive officers making forward-looking claims that are false or misleading. That’s apparently what they’re concerned about here – Musk has often suggested FSD would attain essentially driver-free navigation capabilities in timelines that have not ended up proving accurate.

Based on what the SEC determines following its investigation, we could lawsuits or other consequences for Musk including limitations on his future activity as an officer of a public company if they choose to pursue enforcement of any violations they find.

Elon Musk is being investigated by the SEC for Tesla self-driving claims, report says by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch

Madrid has renewed the operating licenses for scooter-sharing services in the city. The city council has chosen three operators for the next three years — Dott, Lime and Tier.

This trio of companies will sound familiar as these companies also won tender processes in several European cities in recent years. Madrid even says that it drew inspiration from 17 European cities, and Paris and London in particular. Dott, Lime and Tier also operate in Paris, but the Mayor has decided that Parisians will get to vote whether they want to ban shared scooters.

It’s a different story for Madrid as Dott, Lime and Tier now have some clarity until 2026. The operators will be able to roll out 6,000 scooters in total — 2,000 scooters for each company.

There can be some adjustments down the road. If there is more demand than expected, the city of Madrid can decide to increase the cap so that companies can roll out more vehicles — there will be an evaluation every four months. Similarly, the city can grant license extensions after the licenses expire in 2026.

If you live in Madrid or recently traveled to the city, you may have already seen scooters spread around the city. The city of Madrid had already authorized free-floating scooters back in 2019.

And it’s been a mixed bag. While the city has decided to renew the licenses for another three years, it is adding some requirements. In 2019, Madrid originally decided to create a 10,000 hard cap for the total number of scooters in the city. But there wasn’t any limit on the number of operators.

Overall, 18 companies obtained an operating license from the City Council, leading to unnecessary fragmentation. Many scooter companies already withdrew from Madrid. Starting in May, there will only be three different scooter companies.

Riders won’t be able to park their scooters wherever they want. The city will allocate some specific parking spaces for scooters in the city center. Thanks to the onboard GPS module, users won’t be able to end their ride if they haven’t parked their scooter properly. Scooter companies can also require a photo when you end your ride.

Outside of the city center, riders should park their scooter in a moped, bike or scooter parking space. If you are more than 50 meters away from a dedicated space, you can lock your scooter and end your ride.

According to the city council, there has already been some improvements when it comes to fines due to improper parking. But things should definitely look better in May. The three operators promised that they will remove an incorrectly parked scooter within one hour.

Madrid selects Dott, Lime and Tier for scooter licenses by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Electric vehicle charging management systems are usually end-to-end solutions for managing EV charging operations, billing, energy, drivers, and even fleets. This means EV charging service providers can optimize the monetization of their operations.

A number of players have proliferated over the last few years. Driivz from Israel has raised $23.1M in VC funding to date and was recently selected by Shell to run its charging and smart energy management platform. Greenflux from the Netherlands has pulled in €11M. Then there’s ChargeLab (raised $20.4M) out of Canada, Monta (€50M) out of Denmark, and EV Energy ($13.5M) out of the UK.

Meanwhile, originally hailing from Sofia, Bulgaria, but now with operations across Europe, is Ampeco, a startup which until now hasn’t popped up on the VC funding radar with its own EV charging management platform.

That changes today with the news that Ampeco has raised a series A round of $13M led by BMW iVentures, taking its total raised to date to $16M. The startup plans to use the cash to drive further into North America, as well as growing product.

The Series A round also included Bulgaria’s LauncHub Ventures (which last year announced a €70M fund, substantial for the South Eastern Europe region) and Cavalry Ventures (out of Berlin) as well as a handful of angel investors.

It’s worth remembering that BMW iVentures has form in this area, backing a number of earlier players. It was an early investor in Chargepoint (now on the NYSE) and Chargemaster (acquired by BP).

Ampeco offers a solution to EV charging providers that covers the public sector, private business fleets, and residential. The idea is that its platform lets customers manage chargers at scale and then pick and choose / mix and match from hardware partners, rather than being locked-in to one hardware provider. It also works with smart meters, building management systems, and renewable energy sources.

In a statement Orlin Radev, CEO, AMPECO said: “There is an incredible opportunity for EV charging providers to build and scale a profitable business using innovative technologies.”

Four years after launching, Ampeco says it has pulled-in 120 customers in 45 markets, reached 62,000 charging points and doubled in size to over 80 people. 

Baris Guzel, Partner, BMW i Ventures, added: “As EV sales are proliferating, access to EV charging infrastructure becomes more critical than ever. Ampeco’s hardware-agnostic and comprehensive software solution enables clients to launch and grow their own EV charging networks quickly.”

BMW continues its love affair with EVs, backing this Bulgarian startup’s $13M A-round by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch