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 light together with these fats enterprise checks that are actually flowing to AI startups.
Tighter capital mixed with an existential have to 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 Area” to get a way of what Europe’s early-stage micromobility ecosystem was bringing to the desk. Lots of the firms I spoke to try to fill the gaps of this business — whether or not it’s via fleet administration software program, parking, or charging. Some, although, are simply constructing the autos they wished to journey.
All of them symbolize the subsequent part of the ever-evolving micromobility business.
Convoy
E-cargo bikes are sometimes marketed as making dad and mom’ lives simpler, however most are heavy, cumbersome, and costly. U.Ok.-based Convoy, which was based in 2023, is making an attempt to surpass these obstacles with a clip-on cargo conversion equipment for bikes and e-bikes that may carry as much as two babies.
The staff behind Convoy has a various background that ranges from ladies’s well being tech and e-bikes to the ex-CEO of Dyson.
“We’ve labored collectively for 10 years constructing the primary hands-free wearable breast pump,” Tatiana Escobar-Peake, Convoy’s chief income officer, informed TechCrunch. “For a decade, we now have been obsessing over why life for brand spanking new dad and mom must be so depressing?”
Convoy’s attachment fastens simply to the again wheel of an current bike, shops simply, and solely weighs about 26 kilos. It presents a 250-watt motor that turns pedal bikes into e-bikes, in addition to rear-wheel steering that preserves the turning circle of the bike.
Convoy is launching preorders for the €2,200 ($2,500) trailer subsequent week. The startup has raised modest funding and secured sufficient demand from European distributors this yr to begin enthusiastic about increasing to Japan and the U.S. subsequent yr.
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 making an attempt to straight 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 not any options like this,” Caroline Goeckel informed TechCrunch. “In London, for instance, there’s no manner I can park my bike someplace and know that it’s secure. It’s simply gonna get stolen.”
Azora’s flagship product, Azora Arc, is a coated charging station that may match inside one parking area. It options 5 built-in photo voltaic panels and 4 charging stations that may accommodate as much as eight bikes, and could be tailored for promoting. It’s designed to be a plug-and-play answer, appropriate for numerous places like parking garages and metropolis streets.
Azora desires to promote these stations at a retail value of €28,000 ($32,000) — or €15,999 ($18,400) for the Azora Circulate that doesn’t have a canopy — to cities, residence complexes, purchasing facilities and different companies. They hope to lift €250,000 via enterprise capital or family and friends, emphasizing the necessity for experience in B2B distribution. A pilot program is ready to begin 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 contains sellers seeking to offload {hardware} and new operators in search of cost-effective entry into the market.
“We’re the appropriate market to assist somebody that wishes to begin out, or perhaps a large operator that wishes to broaden affordably,” Alexe Stefan, managing accomplice at Fleetser, informed TechCrunch.
The corporate operates remotely with warehouses in Romania and the Netherlands. It has bought 6,000 bikes this yr and is scaling organically via market demand and word-of-mouth. Fleetser additionally presents logistics assist for shifting and delivering bikes, and was seen chatting with the founders of Detroit-based Bloom — which desires to tackle all of the onerous, behind-the-scenes work for e-bike startups — on the occasion.
Swap
Italian startup Swap 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 presents two core merchandise: Urbiverse generates artificial information and simulations for logistics and mobility, whereas City Copilot presents real-time demand forecasting, fleet rebalancing, and operations optimization.
Then there’s the AI agent that’s “in a position to entry all of the instruments of the stakeholders,” from Slack to CRM apps, in order that customers can ask “cross-section questions.”
“So you may ask it somelike like, please ship a notification on Slack each time that the fleet battery common stage goes beneath 40% on this neighborhood, you may you ask for a report of the standing of my fleet as compared with public transport disruption,” Alessandro Ciociola, Swap’s AI officer, informed TechCrunch.
Based in 2020, the corporate has raised almost $1 million, together with from the European Institute of Know-how.
Zapp
Zapp, an excellent app from Bosnia and Herzegovina, presents meals supply, shared micromobility, package deal supply, lease a automobile, and taxi providers. Zapp launched in 2020 and has expanded to 10 cities in Bosnia — the place Uber nonetheless doesn’t have an enormous presence — and plans to enter Croatia this yr.
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.
“Within the Balkans, there’s not loads of competitors [from established players like Uber], and the main target for our franchise is smaller cities beneath 1 million individuals as a result of the idea is to empower native individuals, as a result of native individuals know greatest what the shopper wants in that metropolis,” mentioned Mikolic.
J2R
Jean Madaule was a enterprise analyst for the online game business 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 dimension. Smol has a pointy, radical design that has futuristic dirtbike styling with a minimalist enchantment, which is enhanced by options just like the uncovered suspension.
“It’s a toy, however for town,” Madaule mentioned. “Principally for people who find themselves actually city and into road tradition. I suppose that’s why shortage advertising works for them. They really feel prefer it’s a drop of one thing tremendous unique.”
The staff launched a presale marketing campaign in September with a price ticket of €9,450 ($10,800). They plan to ship 15 numbered models by the tip of the yr and 100 models in January 2026. Smol is assembled in France with elements 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 presents a subscription-based software program service that tracks key metrics resembling consumer registrations, bookings, car utilization, and revenues. It additionally integrates publicly obtainable information and presents an AI agent for personalized insights and operational solutions.
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 give you its personal insights for shoppers.
“Profitability is an enormous situation for everybody within the enterprise and to enhance profitability, or to first attain profitability, you will need to know the mechanisms behind your value and income construction and the way these are linked,” Meurer mentioned.
