Early-stage micromobility has shifted over the previous few years. The cowboy antics of e-scooter firms inflicting chaos in a bid to scale has pale together with these fats enterprise checks that at the moment are flowing to AI startups.
Tighter capital mixed with an existential must 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 Arena” to get a way of what Europe’s early-stage micromobility ecosystem was bringing to the desk. Most of the firms I spoke to are attempting to fill the gaps of this trade – whether or not it’s by means of fleet administration software program, parking, or charging. Some, although, are simply constructing the autos they wished to experience.
All of them symbolize the subsequent part of the ever-evolving micromobility trade.
Convoy
E-cargo bikes are sometimes marketed as making dad and mom’ lives simpler, however most are heavy, cumbersome, and costly. UK-based Convoy, which was based in 2023, is attempting to surpass these obstacles with a clip-on cargo conversion package for bikes and e-bikes that may carry as much as two young children.
The staff behind Convoy has a various background that ranges from femtech and e-bikes to the ex-CEO of Dyson.
“We have worked together for 10 years building the first hands-free wearable breast pump,” Tatiana Escobar-Peake, Convoy’s chief income officer, advised TechCrunch. “For a decade, we have been obsessing over why life for new parents has to be so miserable?”
Convoy’s attachment fastens simply to the again wheel of an present bike, shops simply, and solely weighs about 26 kilos. It gives a 250-watt motor that turns pedal bikes into e-bikes, in addition to rear-wheel steering preserves the turning circle of the bike.
Convoy is launching pre-orders 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 occupied with increasing to Japan and the U.S. subsequent 12 months.
Azora Cost
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 attempting to immediately 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 are no solutions like this,” Caroline Goeckel advised TechCrunch. “In London, for example, there’s no way I can park my bike somewhere and know that it’s safe. It’s just gonna get stolen.”
Azora’s flagship product, Azora Arc, is a coated charging station that may match inside one parking house. It options built-in 5 photo voltaic panels, 4 charging stations that may accommodate as much as eight bikes, and may be tailored for promoting. It’s designed to be a plug-and-play resolution, appropriate for numerous 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 Circulation that doesn’t have a canopy – to cities, condominium complexes, purchasing facilities and different companies. They hope to boost €250,000 by means of 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 consumer base consists of sellers seeking to offload {hardware} and new operators looking for cost-effective entry into the market.
“We are the right marketplace to help someone that wants to start out, or even a big operator that wants to expand affordably,” Alexei Stefan, managing associate 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 means of market demand and word-of-mouth. Fleetser additionally gives logistics help for transferring 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.
Change
Italian startup Change 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 gives two core merchandise: Urbiverse generates artificial information and simulations for logistics and mobility, whereas City Copilot gives real-time demand forecasting, fleet rebalancing, and operations optimization.
Then there’s the AI agent that’s “able to access all the tools of the stakeholders,” from Slack to CRM apps, in order that customers can ask “cross-section questions.”
“So you can ask it somelike like, please send a notification on Slack every time that the fleet battery average level goes below 40% in this neighborhood, you can you ask for a report of the status of my fleet in comparison with public transport disruption,” Alessandro Ciociola, Change’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, gives meals supply, shared micromobility, package deal supply, lease a automotive, and taxi providers. Zapp launched in 2020 and has expanded to 10 cities in Bosnia — the place Uber nonetheless doesn’t have a giant 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 Hearth.
“In the Balkans, there’s not a lot of competition [from established players like Uber], and the focus for our franchise is smaller cities below 1 million people because the concept is to empower local people, because local people know best what the customer needs in that city,” stated Mikolic.
J2R
Jean Madaule was a enterprise analyst for the online game trade who wished 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, but for the city,” Madaule stated. “Basically for people who are really urban and into street culture. I guess that’s why scarcity marketing works for them. They feel like it’s a drop of something super exclusive.”
The staff launched a pre-sale marketing campaign in September with a price ticket of €9,450 ($10,800). They plan to ship 15 numbered items by the top of the 12 months and 100 items in January 2026. Smol is assembled in France with components 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 gives a subscription-based software program service that tracks key metrics similar to person registrations, bookings, automobile utilization, and revenues. It additionally integrates publicly out there information and gives an AI agent for personalized insights and operational options.
The corporate’s goal consumer is smaller operators that don’t have their very own reserving platforms however moderately depend on white label options, which Hint attracts information from to provide you with its personal insights for shoppers.
“Profitability is a big issue for everyone in the business and to improve profitability, or to first reach profitability, it is important to know the mechanisms behind your cost and revenue structure and how these are connected,” Meurer stated.
