Reports: E-Scooter Company Bird Explores Potential SPAC

Two years ago, everyone was throwing electric scooters in the water. These days, they're throwing money at them. Now Bird, the high-flying, scooter-sharing startup, reportedly has its sights set on going public.

Bird is working with Credit Suisse on a potential deal with a blank-check company, reports Bloomberg, although the talks are still early-stage. Experts say interest in a Bird reverse merger underscores a promising rebound in investor outlook on micromobility.

Powering through

Like their scene-stealing siblings in electric transport, e-scooters had a tough go of it in early spring. Industry darling Lime closed up shop in 12 markets. Voi, the Swedish scooter startup, laid off or furloughed most of its staff. And Bird itself laid off close to 30% of its workers on one Zoom call.

• “A lot of investors had serious concerns about...mobility technology companies in general...whether they would be resilient and whether a lot of them would even survive this crisis,” Asad Hussain, mobility analyst at PitchBook, told us.

Now, the wheels seem to be back in motion. Once shelter-in-place orders were relaxed, more people opted to navigate their cities via single-passenger micromobility solutions instead of shared public transport.

• In late spring/early summer, a handful of e-bike companies reported triple-digit sales growth year-over-year.

SPACs on SPACs: Since August, there’s been a major uptick in mobility companies in general announcing plans for reverse mergers.

• Bird’s potential deal could add to the $6 billion+ that’s been invested by SPACs in mobility so far this year, says Hussain.
• Recap: Merging with a SPAC is typically a quicker, cheaper alternative to an IPO.

Even SoftBank made its first foray into e-scooters last week.

Down the road: Bird would be one of the first shared mobility companies to go public via this route—and other startups are watching closely.

“If it goes well,” says Hussain, “it will set a precedent for other...mobility-as-a-service types of businesses.”