Scooting to bankruptcy court… Bird, an electric-scooter rental once valued at $2.5B, filed for bankruptcy this week. It’s an Icarus-like plunge for a startup that reached a $1B valuation in just eight months — the fastest ever to achieve the milestone at the time. But controversies, increased competition, and a growing global movement against e-scooters clipped the company’s wings.
Breaking a few eggs: Bird and rival Lime started the e-scooter craze, but public perception fell as accidents and abandoned scooters piled up. In two months last year, Bird racked up $385K in parking fines.
Road bump: Pandemic-era shutdowns hit Bird hard. It laid off 30% of its workforce in March 2020.
Tipped over: Bird shares fell 97% this year, and the biz was delisted from the NYSE. Its attempts to recoup revenue — including asking former users to pay back debts under a dollar — were unsuccessful.
The e-scooter biz may be underwater… Despite getting $5B+ in venture capital over the past six years, the e-scooting industry hasn’t been great at zooming past mounting obstacles. Folks soured on scooters because of sidewalk clutter and safety issues — micromobility-related injuries have climbed 23%/year since 2017 — and Paris banned the rentals this year, joining more than a third of the top 100 cities (from Philly to Sydney) that’ve done the same.
Pulling ahead: Bird rivals Revel and Tier Mobility have also struggled, but this fall, Lime reported a 45% increase in gross YoY bookings.
Winning over VCs is only half the battle… you also need customers to get on board. Bird pitched a vision of smooth rides and greener cities. Now with e-scooting’s safety problems worsening and its environmental claims facing scrutiny (studies show that e-scooters replace walking and public transportation at a higher rate than cars), people increasingly aren’t buying that vision. That downward spiral may keep going as cities continue to ban the two-wheelers.