Thursday, October 3, 2019

Bird Finds $275M More In New Funding

Santa Monica-based scooter startup Bird has gone back to the well once more, and has raised a big, $275M Series D funding round, the company said on Thursday. Bird said the round was led by CDPQ and Sequoia Capital, and gives the company a $2.5 billion pre-money valuation. Bird--which offers a smartphone-driven, on-demand scooter service which is now ubiquitous among U.S. and other cities--has been fighting a market share battle with a long list of competitors, including Lime, Uber, Lyft, Wheels, and many others. The company--which had been running into operational issues keeping its scooters on the streets long enough to pay back the investment in hardware--recently launched Bird Two, a newly re-engineered scooter expected to be more robust and stay operational for much longer.