
Australia and New Zealand shared e-scooter and e-bike operator Neuron Mobility has raised A$59.1 million in Series B funding to fuel rapid international expansion and accelerate tech development.
This follows 18 months of significant growth and brings the company’s total funding to A$105.6 million with the latest investment round co-led by Australia’s Square Peg and global venture firm GSR Ventures, and a global Asia-based investor Singapore’s EDBI also joining the round.
Since Neuron’s last funding round 19 months ago, the company has more than tripled its operations, growing from seven cities in September 2020 to 26 cities.
After recent launches in Melbourne, Hobart, Perth and Sydney, Neuron says it is now the only micromobility operator in every Australian state and territory and operates in every Australian capital city.
Since the last funding round Neuron has also launched in Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Launceston, and Ballarat, bringing its total number of operational cities in Australia to 14.
Neuron says the new investment will fund its rapid global expansion, focused on winning highly-prized city tenders to operate long-term micromobility programmes, rather than launching in unregulated ‘free-for-all’ cities which it says are often less predictable.
The company also increased its global footprint with city launches in the United Kingdom and South Korea. In its first season in Canada, Neuron gained permits to operate in more than 30% of all available cities, securing five Canadian cities including Calgary and Ottawa.
“Cities are shifting to a more regulated way of managing shared micromobility, increasingly selecting the best one or two operators before awarding them long-term contracts,” says Neuron Mobility chief executive Zachary Wang.
“This fully validates our strategy, and the strong foundations we have built in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK give us a great springboard to scale globally.”
New investment will fund more proprietary technology and will accelerate the launch of Neuron’s new “e-scooter brain” which will be rolled out on its e-scooters in key cities.
The technology includes industry-leading high accuracy location technology (HALT) which can correct GPS variance to locate an e-scooter to within 10 centimetres rather than the industry norm of up to 10 metres.
It also includes a range of smart sensors and a dangerous riding detection system, which will combat sidewalk riding, aggressive swerving, skidding, tandem riding and kerb jumping.
The technology allows the company to correct or penalise unsafe behaviours while also incentivising safe riding. A major technology trial involving 1500 e-scooters in Australia, Canada and the UK was announced in November 2021.
Neuron designs and manufactures its own e-scooters for safety and sustainable operations.