Paris’ commercial court approved Cooltra’s Cityscoot acquisition. These two firms provide unlockable electric mopeds for transportation. The court-ordered receivership of Cityscoot occurred months before.
With European lending rates at 0%, micromobility firms blossomed. Due to crowded cities and cheap capital costs, scooter businesses, bike-sharing services, and electric moped enterprises thrived in Europe.
However, increasing interest rates have darkened matters. Fundraising rounds and loan facilities for new cars grew difficult. It sparked bankruptcies and mergers.
Following a last-minute purchase by Cooltra, Cityscoot, a prominent Parisian micromobility service with its signature white-and-blue electric mopeds, will close.
Before American scooters like Lime and Bird and Chinese shared bikes like Ofo and Mobike arrived in Europe, Cityscoot introduced shared electric mopeds in Paris.
Private and public investors like Groupe RATP and Caisse des Dépôts gave the firm tens of millions of dollars. Cityscoot grew to include Nice, Milan, Rome, and Turin, but Paris remained its major market.
Both Cooltra and Yego, international micromobility startups, began to consider Paris as a market. Lime considered offering electric mopeds in Paris. Cityscoot, Cooltra, and Yego won a Paris tender to restrict mopeds to three permits.
Cooltra primarily gains users.
But a few months later, Cityscoot failed to get additional capital and went bankrupt. A court-ordered receivership followed. In this process, the court received multiple City Scoot acquisition proposals.
Former CEO Bertrand Fleurose has been active on LinkedIn about buying Cityscoot. The court rejected his offer, perhaps because of a lack of funding.
Another offer from Cooltra focused on Cityscoot’s assets, particularly its user base. Even though Cityscoot had over 150 workers, just 30 will maintain their jobs after today’s judgment. Court filings show that Cooltra is paying €400,000 ($430,000 at today’s currency rate) to purchase Cityscoot and wants to spend €1.5 million ($1.6 million) over two years to fund the merger.
Cooltra wants to act fast. Cityscoot customers may join Cooltra’s app using their current login details tomorrow, according to the business. Cooltra mopeds will receive new stickers to signify that Cityscoot and Cooltra are now the same service to facilitate the transfer.
After purchasing Spin, Bird went into bankruptcy, and Tier and Dott announced their intentions to combine. Voi Lay has fired 120 staff lately. Superpedestrian closed in the US.
Current economic conditions are brutal for micromobility companies. Cityscoot’s bankruptcy is certainly not the last in the space.
