Tag: electric bus

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Zūm founder strikes balance between accessibility and a massive logistics network

Zūm’s mission is simple – to introduce student transportation that is reliable, efficient, sustainable and transparent.

To achieve the feat of modernizing an incredibly outdated, stuck-in-the-mud system, Zūm relies on cloud-based analytics software to create an agile bus routing system with real-time visibility for schools and parents. The startup also uses a diverse fleet that includes buses, vans and cars that it distributes based on specific use cases. For example, kids who live on busier routes will be assigned to school buses, and those who are slightly more remote will be sent vans or cars to increase overall efficiency.

When we last talked to Ritu Narayan, Zūm’s founder, the startup had just won a $150 million contract to modernize student transportation at the San Francisco Unified School District and was working on a plan to transform its fleet of electric school buses into a virtual power plant to provide backup energy to the grid.

“Zūm is a very recession-proof business. No matter what, kids are going to go to school every day, whether there’s a recession or inflation.” Zūm founder Ritu Narayan

Since then, Zūm has signed a $68 million contract with Seattle Public Schools and a $400 million contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District to bring their outdated busing systems into 2022 and beyond. The company also closed a $130 million Series D led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, bringing its total funding to more than $200 million, and set a goal to have a 100% electrified fleet of buses, vans and cars by 2025.

We sat down with Narayan to catch up on the past year and talk about how to bring on top tech talent, how growth-stage startups can attract next-level investors, and how to pick a recession-proof business.

Editor’s note: The following interview, part of an ongoing series with founders who are building transportation companies, has been edited for length and clarity.

TechCrunch: Zūm has had some impressive new executive hires lately — it looks like you’ve poached from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Uber and Netflix. Do you have any tips for other startups looking to attract top tech talent?

Ritu Narayan: The No. 1 thing is the focus on the mission and the purpose. The business that we are disrupting is a pretty old business. It has been around for 80 to 100 years with not much change. So when looking for potential hires, we just map out very clearly what change Zūm is bringing. We believe everybody has faced some kind of school bus story, whether they got bullied on the bus or maybe didn’t have access to one and had to walk. It’s such a part of people’s lives, that when we actually explain our mission and founding story, people are very much able to relate.

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Swvl’s $100m acquisition of Smart Bus startup Zeelo is off, amid tech stocks slump

All is not well with the proposed acquisition of UK start bus platform Zeelo by Mass transit group Swvl. Back in April, we covered how a possible $100 million acquisition was on the cards, and, indeed, both companies confirmed it was, though not the price.

Swvl, an Egyptian-born startup that provides shared transportation services for intercity and intracity trips, had previously gone public (NASDAQ: SWVL) via a SPAC, and had agreed to acquire Zeelo, adding to its recent acquisitions of Viapool and Shotl, as well as the announced acquisitions of Volt Lines and door2door.

When the news of the acquisition dropped Swvl was trading at $9-10 a share. Today, however, it is trading at barely $1 a share. SPot the difference…

So today Zeelo has dropped the news that the acquisition is now terminated, citing overall market conditions and the obvious slump in tech stocks.

The April 28 acquisition was expected to close on May 24, and Zeelo says all pre-completion obligations were met, but “following financial market volatility, Swvl and Zeelo mutually agreed to terminate the planned transaction.”

Equally, in an SEC filing, Swvl Holdings Corp says it agreed to terminate their previously-announced transaction whereby Swvl would acquire Zeelo. Swvl, previously funded a $5M convertible promissory note to Zeelo, which the latter will now keep.

However, the move sounds like it’s a smart one for Zeelo which claims to be seeing continued growth in its business in the UK, South Africa and the US, which provides private rides for commuters and students in the Corporate and Education space.

Zeelo has raised $19.6M to date from investors such as ETF Partners, InMotion Ventures and angels.

In an interview with me, I asked co-founder and CEO Sam Ryan if the termination of the acquisition was a disaster for Zeelo?

“No, I don’t think it’s been a disaster,” he said. “I think the market conditions have changed. We’re still in a great place, the businesses is growing really, really quickly. And you know, now we’re shielded from what’s going on in the public markets.”

He said both companies agreed mutually to terminate the transaction due to the collapse in tech markets: “The deal that was agreed no longer made sense right for the parties… not just in terms of the terms of the transaction, but also in terms of the growth opportunity.. we wouldn’t be able to do any of that anymore.”

He added: “We’re in a great place now. We’re profitable in the UK, we’re growing 1.5x again this year. We’re doing 150,000 rides per month via EV. This is growing very quickly as there is a big opportunity in the US market. I think being somewhat shielded from the public markets isn’t a bad thing. Obviously, any process like this involves lots of ups and downs and it’s a real roller coaster. But everyone is very, very excited about what’s next.”

Acknowledging the tech downturn, he added: “I think that the world has changed incredibly quickly in the last few months, and sentiment around public early-stage technology companies has changed dramatically. I’m not sure any of us could have foreseen what was going to happen over the last few months or just how severe it’s been.”

Simultaneously, Zeelo is coming out with the news that it has cut a deal with electric fleet and network infrastructure provider, Zenobe, to enable the former to run rides on electric vehicles, with a consequent position contribution to its Net Zero goals. (Zeelo says its journeys are already 100% carbon neutral through a partnership with Climate Partner to support environmental regeneration programs in Bulgaria and Uganda).

Zenobe says it currently services 25% of the UK’s bus market share, providing including charging infrastructure, battery replacement, large-scale battery storage, and refurbished second-life batteries. Zeelo is already running electric buses on some routes with its bus operator partners.

James Basden, co-founder of Zenobe, commented: “We believe access is the key roadblock to transitioning to electrification and that is why we have developed software, infrastructure and a financing model together with our partners like Zeelo to build sustainability right into the business model of the transport industry.” 

Zeelo’s transport management software system comprises a SaaS platform, consumer apps that picks workers or students up from where they are. It was founded in 2016 by Sam Ryan, Barney Williams and Dani Ruiz and closed its Series A in 2018. So far it’s raised over US$30M from ETF Partners, InMotion Ventures and Dynamo, among others. The co-founders previously sold their pioneering ride-sharing app JumpIn to Addison Lee in 2014.

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Proterra to build commercial EV battery factory in South Carolina, its third in US

Proterra, an American commercial electric vehicle company that produces transit buses and electric charging systems, is opening up its third battery factory in Greer, South Carolina. The factory should begin production in the second half of 2022 with “multiple gigawatt hours of annual battery system production capacity,” according to the company.

Proterra did not disclose the specific production capacity expected at its South Carolina plant, but its two other plants in Burlingame, California and Los Angeles have a max annual capacity of 345 megawatt hours and 675 megawatt hours, respectively, according to Shane Levy, director of corporate communications.

Globally, the electric commercial vehicle market is estimated to reach $62.4 billion this year. With myriad government and corporate initiatives focused on decreasing emissions, the commercial EV sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% over the next nine years, and automakers are racing to supply that demand. In January this year, General Motors announced its new commercial electric vehicle brand, Brightdrop, and in September, Ford beefed up its commercial EV unit ahead of the Ford E-Transit work van launch, to name a couple.

With this new plant, Proterra has committed to creating more than 200 jobs in South Carolina and investing a minimum of $76 million into the 327,000-square-foot plant, which is located at the 42.76-acre Carolina Commerce Center. The factory, which is located near the company’s electric bus manufacturing facility, is Proterra’s entry into producing batteries in the eastern U.S., which the company says will bring it closer to its “Proterra Powered” customers. In addition to building its own electric vehicles, Proterra partners with other automakers to integrate its powertrains into their vehicles. Daimler’s Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley school bus from Thomas Built Buses, for example, is powered by Proterra, as are Volta’s new refrigerated trucks.

The Greer battery production site comes a year after Proterra opened its second battery factory within its existing EV bus manufacturing facility in Los Angeles. It will also be neighbors to commercial EV competitor Arrival, which recently shared plans to open its own battery module assembly plant in North Carolina. As more automakers begin producing EVs and wanting to control their own supply chain, more domestic battery assembly plants are sure to follow.

Automakers have battery anxiety, so they’re taking control of the supply

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Proterra to build commercial EV battery factory in South Carolina, its third in US

Proterra, an American commercial electric vehicle company that produces transit buses and electric charging systems, is opening up its third battery factory in Greer, South Carolina. The factory should begin production in the second half of 2022 with “multiple gigawatt hours of annual battery system production capacity,” according to the company.

Proterra did not disclose the specific production capacity expected at its South Carolina plant, but its two other plants in Burlingame, California and Los Angeles have a max annual capacity of 345 megawatt hours and 675 megawatt hours, respectively, according to Shane Levy, director of corporate communications.

Globally, the electric commercial vehicle market is estimated to reach $62.4 billion this year. With myriad government and corporate initiatives focused on decreasing emissions, the commercial EV sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% over the next nine years, and automakers are racing to supply that demand. In January this year, General Motors announced its new commercial electric vehicle brand, Brightdrop, and in September, Ford beefed up its commercial EV unit ahead of the Ford E-Transit work van launch, to name a couple.

With this new plant, Proterra has committed to creating more than 200 jobs in South Carolina and investing a minimum of $76 million into the 327,000-square-foot plant, which is located at the 42.76-acre Carolina Commerce Center. The factory, which is located near the company’s electric bus manufacturing facility, is Proterra’s entry into producing batteries in the eastern U.S., which the company says will bring it closer to its “Proterra Powered” customers. In addition to building its own electric vehicles, Proterra partners with other automakers to integrate its powertrains into their vehicles. Daimler’s Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley school bus from Thomas Built Buses, for example, is powered by Proterra, as are Volta’s new refrigerated trucks.

The Greer battery production site comes a year after Proterra opened its second battery factory within its existing EV bus manufacturing facility in Los Angeles. It will also be neighbors to commercial EV competitor Arrival, which recently shared plans to open its own battery module assembly plant in North Carolina. As more automakers begin producing EVs and wanting to control their own supply chain, more domestic battery assembly plants are sure to follow.

Automakers have battery anxiety, so they’re taking control of the supply

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Proterra, the Tesla of electric buses, closes in on $1 billion valuation

Proterra has authorized shares to raise $75 million, a new round of funding that would push the electric bus maker’s valuation past $1 billion, TechCrunch has learned.

The company authorized the sale of 10,857,762 shares at a price of $6.91 in a Series 8 round, according to a securities filing that was obtained by the Prime Unicorn Index, a company that tracks the performance of private U.S. companies, and reviewed by TechCrunch. If all of the shares are issued, the company’s total valuation would be $1.04 billion, pushing it into “unicorn” territory, according to Prime Unicorn Index.

Proterra declined to comment.

Efforts to raise capital come as the company explores an IPO, according to a report last month by Reuters that said Proterra had hired underwriters from Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

The filing doesn’t name investors. Prior to this August 2 filing, Proterra had raised a total of $$551.77 million in funding from investors that include G2VP, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Constellation Ventures, Mitsui & Co as well as BMW i Ventures, Edison Energy, the Federal Transportation Administration, General Motors’s venture arm and Tao Capital Partners.

Proterra’s roots are producing electric buses for municipal, federal and commercial transit agencies; it has a line of electric buses, hundreds of which have been sold, that can travel 350 miles on a single charge. The Burlingame, Calif. company, which has a number of former Tesla employees in leadership positions including CEO Ryan Popple, has since diversified its business.

Proterra rolled out in April a $200 million credit facility backed by Japanese investment giant Mitsui & Co. to scale up a battery leasing program aimed at lowering the barrier of entry of buying an electric bus.

And just this month, company announced it has added a new business line called Proterra Powered that will sell its vehicle battery systems, powertrain technology and charging infrastructure to commercial truck and manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles like garbage trucks.

This new business line stems from its previous relationships with companies like Van Hool and Daimler . Proterra announced last year it was working with Daimler to electrify the company’s Thomas Built Buses division, which makes a line of school buses. That relationship comes with some financial backing and an agreement to share technologies.

Daimler co-led a $155 million funding along with Tao Capital Partner. Proterra is lending its battery and drive train expertise; Daimler will show Proterra how to scale its manufacturing business even further.

The partnership has already been fruitful. Thomas Built Buses received certifications from the California Air Resources Board and the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project for an electric bus, known as the Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley, that uses Proterra technology. Electric school bus production for demonstration and innovation vehicles begins in 2019 and commercial production begins in 2020.

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First buses, now Shenzhen has turned its taxis electric in green push

Roads in a Chinese city have gotten much quieter in recent years. Shenzhen, widely called the Silicon Valley of hardware, has been pouring resources to phase out rattling diesel vehicles chugging through the city of 12 million people.

All public buses in the city went electric by the end of 2017. Taxis soon followed suit. The Transport Commission of Shenzhen announced on its official site this week that 99 percent of the city’s more than 21,000 cabs are now powered by batteries.

However, 1,350 vehicles from the fleet are still waiting to be deployed because of a shortage of charging stations, a sign the city’s infrastructure is not up to speed with its electric car movement. A survey done by newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily last year showed that 80 percent of Shenzhen’s cab drivers were unsatisfied with the supply and allocation of charging stations in the city.

Shenzhen, where Warren Buffet-backed battery and car manufacturer BYD stations its headquarters, is spearheading China’s electric dream. Its electrifying evolution dates back to 2010 when the city became part of China’s grand plan to pilot hybrid and all-electric vehicles with deep subsidies for both manufacturers and consumers. Underneath the ostensible goal of improving air quality is China’s ambition to be a world leader in battery technologies, which could subsequently drive employment and export sales.

Shenzhen’s traffic authority claims that electric cabs are 70 percent more energy efficient compared to those powered by fossil fuel. The entire fleet of electric cabs is estimated to cut carbon emissions by 856 thousand metric tons a year for Shenzhen. That’s equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions neutralized by 1,007,445 acres of US forests in one year, according to a greenhouse gas calculator provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s worth noting that the environmental perks of EVs are dependent on how a city is generating electricity. The dirtier the energy source, like coal and oil, the dirtier its electric cars are.

A major beneficiary in Shenzhen’s green push is BYD, which manufacturers a big portion of the city’s non-petrol buses and taxis. Recently, the carmaker has made forays into overseas markets to electrify their public transportation system as China weighs subsidy cuts on electric cars. The Shenzhen automaker is trecking across the globe and shipping fleets to the UK, Chile and Egypt. In Asia, it’s sold electric vehicles to neighboring Macau, Singapore and Japan.

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China’s BYD further drives into Chile with 100 electric buses

Over the past few years, Chinese automaker giant BYD has been on a partnership spree with cities across China to electrify their public transportation systems, and now it’s extending its footprint across the globe. On Thursday, BYD announced that it has shipped 100 electric buses to Santiago, the capital city of Chile.

The step marks the Chinese firm’s further inroads into the Latin American country where a green car revolution is underway to battle smog. BYD’s first batch of vehicles arrived in Santiago last November and the Warren Buffett-backed carmaker remains as the only electric public bus provider in the country.

Chile is on the map of China’s grand Belt and Road Initiative aiming to turbocharge the world’s less developed regions with infrastructure development and investments. “With the help of ‘One Belt One Road,’ BYD has successfully entered Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Uraguay and other Latin American countries. As the region accelerates its electric revolution, BYD may be able to win more opportunities,” said BYD in a statement.

byd chile 1

President of Chile Mr. Sebastián Piñera rides the BYD electric bus. / Credit: BYD

The 100 buses embarked on a 45-day sea voyage from BYD’s factory in eastern China to land on the roads of Santiago. They sport the Chilean national colors of red and white on the exterior and provide USB charging ports inside to serve a generation who live on their electronic devices.

The fleet arrived through a partnership between BYD and Enel, a European utility juggernaut that claims to make up 40 percent of Chile’s energy sales in 2017. Enel has purchased the fleet from BYD and leased them to local transportation operator Metbus while the Chilean government set the rules and standards for the buses, a BYD spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Local passengers graded BYD’s electric vehicles at 6.3 out of 7, well above the 4.6 average of the Santiago public transportation system, according to a survey jointly produced by Chile’s Ministry of Energy as well as Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. Respondents cited qualities such as low noise level, air conditioning and USB charging that the buses deliver.

Santiago currently has 7,000 public buses running on the road, among which 400 get replaced every year. A lot of the new ones will be diesel-free as the Chilean government said it aims to increase the total number of electric vehicles by tenfold in 2022.