Swedish Startup Voi Scoots To $160 Million Funding For AltTransportation

Voi Technology, a Sweden-based eScooter startup, has raised $160 million as European companies vie for superiority in the new market for alternative transportation, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

The announcement comes after rival Tier, a German eScooter company, raised $250 million, FT reported.

Last month, Estonian ridesharing service Bolt pledged to invest another 100 million euros ($121 million) into scooters. European participants have accumulated together a higher financial stock this year than rivals in the U.S. that have been better established like Lime and Bird, FT reported.

American scooter companies have a years-long history of flooding into the European markets with the lightweight electric vehicles. Now, Voi is coming to the U.S.; it has a permit application in New York City, according to FT.

“The tables have turned,” said Fredrik Hjelm, co-founder and CEO of Voi, per FT. “The Americans raised a lot of money but they burned through it quite quickly . . . Now after our round and Tier’s round, we will probably have more cash in the bank than they have and a much better foundation to build on.”

Hjelm and Tier Co-Founder and CEO Lawrence Leuschner said that the slower build of their respective companies, as opposed to the rapid-fire gains of their U.S. counterparts, may have led to better technology overall like batteries that can be removed easily to recharge, FT reported.

Jason Schretter, partner at The Raine Group, which is the leader in Voi’s latest funding round, said European cities have typically been better for eScooters than U.S. ones due to the greater urban density and a cultural preference for bikes over cars, FT reported.

The U.S., meanwhile, has been moving more in the direction of owning personal means of transport rather than relying on public transit. PYMNTS reported that a survey from Cars.com in August found that 21 percent of Americans had bought a car in the previous six months, with 57 percent indicating it was because of the pandemic.