SoftBank Backs TIER at $2 Billion Valuation, Fueling European Scooter Wars
25 October 2021 - 12:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Adam Clark
SoftBank Corp. has doubled down on its bet on European e-scooter
provider TIER Mobility, co-leading a $200 million funding round
valuing the company at around $2 billion.
The Series D funding round, disclosed Monday, shows a continued
appetite for private investment in European mobility companies,
even as U.S. peers move to the stock market after facing a blow to
growth from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May, U.S. e-scooter leader Bird announced a deal to go public
via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company that gave
it an enterprise value of $2.3 billion. Smaller Italian-American
rival Helbiz Inc. took the same path to begin trading on Nasdaq in
August, while Lime was reported to be in SPAC talks earlier this
year after slashing its valuation in 2020.
However, European e-scooter and mobility companies continue to
rake in major private funding rounds. Estonia's Bolt, which
operates ride-hailing and delivery services as well as e-scooters,
raised 600 million euros ($699 million) in August, valuing the
company at about $4.75 billion. Stockholm-based Voi raised $160
million late last year and is reported to have already hired
bankers for a new funding round. Both companies operate fleets
across dozens of European cities, as does Berlin-based TIER.
TIER last raised $250 million in November last year, in a deal
also backed by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2--its first investment in
the e-scooter market--at a reported valuation of close to $1
billion. The latest funding round brings its total equity and debt
funding to $660 million since it was founded in 2018.
The latest round was also backed by existing investors Mubalada
Capital--the investment arm of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund--,
RTP Global, Novator, White Star Capital, Northzone, and
Speedinvest.
New investors included U.K. fund manager M&G PLC via its
Catalyst investment team, set up earlier this year to allocate up
to $6.9 billion to sustainable private assets.
"This equity funding provides further firepower to scale our
multimodal market presence globally, and pursue strategic
investments & acquisitions. Our vehicle capex needs will be
serviced with the debt capacity unlocked. Our goal is to build TIER
into the European micro-mobility powerhouse, building on our
current position as the number one player in the shared electric
scooters market," TIER Chief Financial Officer Alex Gayer said.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2021 07:23 ET (11:23 GMT)
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