Why sustainability is the key to success in the mobility space

The story behind our investment in Tier Mobility
By Eric-Martineau Fortin, Matthieu Lattes and Pauline Studer

As consumers devices, e-scooters boast one of the fastest rates of user adoption ever seen in the tech sector. In Paris for instance, one in three adults have already tried them in less than a year! As a consequence, the global e-scooter market is expected to reach about $40bn to $50bn in revenue by 2025 including $12bn to $15bn in Europe (source).

However, as with any significant disruption, this meteoric rise has not come without growing pains. Voices have been raised in criticism of the impact e-scooters have on road safety, sidewalk congestion, their suspected short lifetime and potential damage to the environment.

At White Star Capital, we believe these critics are somewhat justified. This is why we decided to look for players approaching this market with ideas that take into account social and environmental responsibility. Not only because we want to act for good, but because amidst the current shift away from public spaces and towards more technologically advanced smart cities, we believe that this will result in significantly more value creation.

We are firm believers in the virtuous circle of sustainability. If a company can provide a solution that takes into account social and environmental considerations, not only will it drive market adoption from consumers but it will also ease relationships with public authorities who are eager to favour companies built on a positive social impact ideal. The end result? Better market traction and organic growth that far surpasses any advertorial growth model.

This is why we decided to invest in Tier Mobility, which has established itself as a European leader in the field of micro-mobility.

From day one, the company has built a sustainable model in every aspect of its business:

• Tier’s founders come from a refurbishing background, CEO Lawrence Leuschner was previously the CEO of Rebuy, a German leader that generated €200m revenues in the recommerce market.
• The company has designed solid, safer and more durable e-scooter models which resulted in the German Federal Council giving Tier approval to immediately launch in the market.
• Tier has mastered its operations by deploying predictive maintenance algorithms. This obsession with efficient e-scooter repair allows Tier to anticipate repairs and orders, keeping a higher proportion of e-scooters active and improving daily revenue.
• Tier is placing itself at the heart of the development of multi-modality within large cities in order to provide a better service and to fight both traffic peaks and consequences on pollution.
• The company has signed key partnerships in Germany and France recently with top players of the public and clean transportation areas such as BVG in Berlin, MVG in Munich and Ville de Paris.

Most importantly, consumers have recognised the value of Tier’s mobility solution, with three million rides taken in less than seven months across a dozen European countries.

We are proud to be backing this phenomenal early success that fully reflects our values and we will be delighted to keep supporting Tier in the next steps of its amazing journey.

About White Star Capital

White Star Capital is a Venture Capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs building ambitious, international businesses. Based out of London, New York, Montreal, Paris and Tokyo, our presence, perspective and people enable us to partner closely with our Founders to help them scale internationally from Series A onwards .

Find out more about how we venture beyond at www.whitestar.vc or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.