Bird eScooter acquires Scoot with the aim to grow bigger

Bird, the electric scooter rental startup has acquired San Francisco startup Scoot Networks Inc, a company that also operates shared mopeds and standing scooters. Scoot which mainly operates in San Francisco, Barcelona, Santiago, and Chile is one of the few companies that have the permission to rent electric scooters in its hometown’s streets.

Talking about the acquisition, Bird founder and CEO Travis VanderZanden said in a statement-

We are thrilled to welcome Scoot to the Bird ecosystem and look forward to working with the Scoot team as we further scale our complementary missions – to replace car trips with micro-mobility options for all. Together we will make a bigger impact on our riders’ daily lives and the cities we serve.”

Although, the terms of the deal have not disclosed officially, it seems like Bird is on the positive side of the deal. Scoot was last valued at $71 million and has raised around a total of $47 million through funding.

In another statement, Scoot’s founder Michael Keating said  “We have pursued our mission of electric vehicles for everyone and showed cities that shared, electric mobility is a convenient, fun, and affordable way for citizens to get where they need to go,” and also added that “ With Bird, our mission remains the same, but the scale at which we will pursue it, and the vehicles we will offer will be so much better for our riders and the cities we serve.”  Bird and Scoot acquisition deal is not the only eScooter deal brewing in the micro-mobility domain.

Spin, another E-scooter startup based in San Francisco was acquired by Ford Motor Co, for  $100 million in November, whereas on the other hand, last year, Lyft bought bike-rental company Motivate which also offers rentals in some cities and Uber has invested in Lime along with offering Lime scooter rentals in its app.

Beside this acquisition, there is another new event happening around Bird and Scoot. Bird has come up with its electric bike/seater scooter. The scooter is without any pedals and is called Bird Cruiser whereas, on the other hand, Scoot in an innovative way has experimented with hourly rentals of the Scoot Quad. Made by Nissan, Scoot Quad is an electric car in addition of which Scoot is also hoping to offer dockless electric bikes to its users.
In the end, Founder and CEO of Bird Travis VanderZanden have said in a statement that “Together we will make a bigger impact on our rider’s daily lives and the cities we serve”