Reports indicate that Dockless scooter-share firm, Bird, is nearing a deal for extending its Series C funding with an addition of $300 million led by Fidelity, a cross-over investor. However, the company has declined to make any comments.
Apparently, Fidelity does not have any previous investments in Bird, however, currently the firm is investing in the latter at a flat $2 billion pre-money valuation, that Bird had earned with a Sequoia-led financing of $300 million in June. The company has raised over $400 million to date in venture capital funding from investors which includes, Tusk Ventures, Craft Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Index Ventures, Greycroft, CRV and Accel.
Further from the reports, this investment comes at the time when a lot of investors are losing faith in the tall claims made by e-scooter startups with regards to being the one-stop solution for the last-mile transportation issue. Quite the contrary in fact – some of the companies in this space are showing a general air of undependability, faulty batteries and poor unit economics. Sources familiar with the matter cite that in this regard, Bird’s rival Lime seems to be a tad bit better than its contemporaries – at least the firm has expanded its portfolio in micro-mobility offerings from scooters and bikes to LimePods, shareable vehicles’ line available in Seattle, for increasing investor interest.
For the record, Lime has also been witnessed to be pitching its services to investors in Silicon Valley pitching to investors. Reports indicate that the company is seemingly looking for an investment of $400 million at a $3 billion valuation, over three times the valuation it had accumulated with a funding round of $335 million in July.
According to a recent report, Michael Moran, state representative of Massachusetts has planned on filing a bill this month which would exempt the electric scooters from a law that requires brake lights and turn signals, which in turn would possibly pave a way for a spring pilot program.