More than 100 projects launched

This summer, people in Riga could enjoy the city with RIDE – electric bikes that looked like real e-mopeds. The team launched the service right after the Covid-19 restrictions were eased with a cool launch event and the title of the most downloaded app on the App Store in the country.

Launch date: Summer 2020

Country: Latvia

Fleet: Xiaomi HIMO T1

Web page: https://ridemobility.eu

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/lt/app/id1522014903

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ride.app

Founder and the CEO of the RIDE Edgars Jakobsons first considered launching a ride-sharing business in his hometown Riga after visiting Singapore in 2019. “This was the first time I tried e-scooters myself. It was a fun experience and I thought that people elsewhere might also like it. When I came back to Riga, the first e-scooter sharing service had already started to operate here. We followed soon after in collaboration with Bolt,” Edgars remembers. A year later, he decided to create his own independent company that would offer a new means of transportation – electric bikes.

RIDE launch event (Summer 2020)

The future is in electricity

RIDE is the daughter company of TrafoNet – an organization that provides its customers with industrial electrical equipment. TrafoNet has been previously involved in the development of the infrastructure for electric vehicles – for just over two years now, the company has set up electric vehicle charging stations. “I think that electrical transportation is our inescapable future. When we started to set up stations, we didn’t know when there was going to be a demand for them. Now all the biggest car manufacturers have an electrical car to offer. And people are ready to pay for them.” Edgars believes in the future of electricity. That’s where the choice of electric bikes comes from. And, of course, there are no similar vehicles in the ride- sharing market in Riga. That was the second stimulus.

The season started later than expected due to Covid-19 pandemics – electric bikes appeared on streets on July 15. However, the launch event attracted huge attention – RIDE bikes were offered to ride for free for the first day. It is possible to drive approximately 45 kilometres with one full charge so this was enough to even get to one of Latvia’s summer capitals – Jurmala – and enjoy nice weather by the sea.

Respectively app downloads exceeded the company’s expectations. “Half the people who downloaded the app have tried our service at least once. Yes, we can say that we are lucky, but there is an enormous amount of work behind luck. Moreover, you should always enter the market actively and aggressively. That’s what we did! Competitive advantage should be easily understood and perceived by the client. And the devil is always in the details,” says Edgars, sharing his experience.

RIDE app quickly became one of the most popular apps in the country.

Weather conditions and vandalism – the two main challenges

Latvia is not the best place on Earth to start am electric bike ride-sharing business, because everything depends on weather conditions. Theoretically, it is possible to ride a bike all year long but there would be a small number of people interested in that. If temperatures are low during the coldest months of the year, the ride won’t be enjoyable. However, RIDE is ready to provide its services for as long as there is a demand for them.

The second biggest challenge for the business is people’s attitude. “We want to live in Europe, but sometimes I have a feeling that we are still in the Soviet Union. Plastic as well as mechanical components are broken. Screens have been smashed. These components need to be ordered constantly which creates remarkable costs. It’s a pity that there are so many people who don’t value the work of others,” says Edgars.

Not an easy business

Since the ride-sharing business has become popular, Edgars expects new players to enter the market any time now: “I just wanted to say that it is not an easy business. It is tough and more like a hobby to me. If you think that there’s a huge profit margin here, you’re wrong. When we served a Bolt fleet last year, there were 25 people on the team! You have to pay proper salaries, because the job is not easy and often people have to work at night or during early morning hours. In addition, we pay all our taxes. You really have to like this business a lot to invest your time and money in it.”

One thing Edgars is sure about is that this won’t be RIDE’S last season. The company has plans to expand in the Baltic region, as well as in countries all around the Baltic Sea. RIDE will work to establish its spots locally that will support the ride-sharing business in different cities. However, Edgars stresses that the company has gained experience and technical competences that are easier to replicate then to gather for the first time.

RIDE has chosen the Atom Mobility software that is used in their apps and dashboard. “Three factors are important for us as a partner – costs and costs of developing new features, the availability of different solutions as well as the quality of communication. Unless all these aspects also have value for our partner, we won’t be interested in changing it or creating our solution,” says Edgars.

Nowadays it is possible to run several businesses and one of them can be a vehicle sharing service. Amir Timo Marouf (in the picture on the left) is living proof of this. He is a dentist and runs the mobility company tretty in Münster, Germany.

Launch date: Spring of 2020
Country: Germany, Münster
Fleet: muscle-powered kick-scooters and bikes
Web page: https://www.tretty.de
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tretty
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/tretty/id1509734922
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tretty.app

Amir Timo Marouf founded the mobility company tretty together with Max Weldert. “It all started in school when we knew that one day we would do something together. What exactly was not yet clear back then,” Amir tells the story of how the company started. He says that he always had a passion for sharing, so he considered starting something around it. Max always has been and still is into mobility with the focus on muscle-powered vehicles. “So directly after my exam in dentistry, we took a trip with two lying bikes from Münster to Lisbon. We covered a distance of 2600 kilometers. During this time we more or less developed the whole idea around tretty, because we had a lot of time to think,” Amir remembers.

Motivation and passion

After getting back, Amir and Max set up a team. They found an accountant who took care of all the finances and an engineer. “When our engineer heard of the idea, he was fascinated. And we decided that in the beginning, we won't work for money. It was only motivation and passion that drove us further,” says Amir.

However, it was still not clear what vehicle should be used and whether people living in Münster want to have this service at all... “So we just started a crowdfunding campaign and set a very high target of EUR 50 000. This would be enough to buy 100 scooters. And we succeeded! And we even got 20% more financing,” Amir recalls.

In the crowdfunding announcement, the founders wrote that they will develop their own scooters. As they now had the money, there was pressure on them to do it. And it was only then that Max and Amir realized how big the project would actually be... But they did it!

Struggle with IT

The tretty engineer made a drawing on the basis of which the scooter is built from the scratch by tretty. The team found a manufacturer in the Czech Republic and did a lot just by doing. “In the beginning, I built a website using WordPress. You can learn everything nowadays from videos on the internet if you're motivated. Afterwards, we were very lucky to have two students on the team. They were both at university doing their Master's and they had both experiences in IT. They managed to build a website for the maintenance team,” says Amir.

Next step – the tretty team started to develop its own app. “We realized the importance of the time and also the fact that our business is not building IT solutions. We started to compare existing app developers, who offer white-label solutions. We compared all the big ones. But as we wanted to keep everything local, we hired a company that is focusing on car sharing without any experience in free- floating. It took a long time to register in the app and type in all the information required…” recalls Amir.

So at some point, tretty team decided to change the software provided and chose ATOM. Now with a new app, they are getting a significant amount of new users as the registration is a lot faster. That was one of the main reasons why they switched initially. “I'm also happy that ATOM is always open to optimizations and is ready to talk about alternatives,” says Amir.

Private and business clients, locals, and tourists

Users of the service are people living in Münster and around, including tourists. There are a lot of students in the city - around 60 000 of all the 314 000 people living there. And students are among the most active scooter users. The weather has a big impact - if it is appropriate for riding, the number of daily users increases.

tretty also has one private fleet in Münster, which is owned by a big insurance company. Right now, tretty is also currently discussing possible collaborations with other B2B partners. “There are two options available. We can set up the software for the partner and provide it with vehicles. Then they could use tretty brand and have a franchise. Or they can create their own brand,” explains Amir.

What's next?

The team of tretty is considering different scenarios for expansion. However, Amir says that they still have some homework to do: “The focus is currently on Münster. As soon as we have validated we will consider expansion.”

And what is the plan for Amir? Let's not forget that he is also working as a dentist. “I think one of the main reasons why you can do more than one thing is the enormous speed of digitalization of everything. With a smartphone, you can answer emails from everywhere and even design things and build websites. I think this would not have been possible 10 years ago. It is, of course, tough to multi-task. Mondays are my tretty days. Before and after work as well as at weekends I do tretty. Then I try to schedule my time for my girlfriend and for myself. I'd say that a month or two ago it was really tough but now it’s starting to get better. I think the main reason why it works is that it comes from passion and not from pressure.”

During the pandemic, Kyiv - the capital city of Ukraine - has changed. The local government decided to increasingly focus on the green course by creating a huge amount of bicycle lanes. Even big streets were transformed into two-lane streets and cycling lanes were added. It is a real micro-mobility service paradise, isn't it? Service providers – both global brands and small local companies - responded quickly and took the opportunity to run their businesses there. One of them is Zelectra - a company created by locals, which has just finished a very successful first season.

Launch date: Spring 2021
Country: Ukraine
Fleet: 300 scooters and 350 mopeds
Web page: https://zelectra.com.ua/en/
Team: 25+ team members
Cool fact: 2,500 rides were taken on 250 scooters in 1 day
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/zelectra/id1545583319?l=ru
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ride.app

Sergey and Eugine - co-founders of Zelectra - have been friends since childhood. The idea of a micro-mobility business came about when one of their friends told them he had contacts with the manufacturer in China that could provide vehicles if they are interested in starting a business in Kyiv. “We have never worked with scooters before, but thought that we could try to offer a last-mile service. That's how it all started. However, in the beginning, we laughed about the idea and went in separate directions. But somehow this idea didn't let us go. Then we decided to do the calculations. That was the moment when we became really interested in developing a solution,” explains Eugine. This all happened at the beginning of 2019. At the end of the year, both friends understood that they would launch a micro-mobility business in 2020. 

Zelectra is one of the most popular brand of scooter/moped sharing in Ukraine

Learning together with the local government

The decision was made to launch in Kyiv - the city familiar to both of them. They hoped to be the first, but unfortunately, the pandemic slightly changed their plans. Global micro-mobility service provider Bolt launched in 2020, while four other companies followed in 2021. One was Zelectra. “The reason we started later was due to technical challenges, as well as some challenges while ordering vehicles. Of course, we had heard that there might be hurdles, but we didn't realize what they really meant,” Eugine recalls. For example, banks were looking at their potential business and thought that they were crazy. They didn't want to take the newly-formed team seriously. 

“It was the same story with the government. When they got familiar with Bolt, they had a very poor understanding of what a micro-mobility service is. The scooter as a vehicle was not subject to any regulation. It does not count as transport, and what is an actual micromobility solution? Does the rider need a license? Where is it possible to drive? Are helmets mandatory? Where can vehicles be left? It was a similar story with the electric mopeds with 3kw power that we also offered - they did not correspond to any norms. When we put those vehicles on the street for the first time, we were told that we were breaking the law. Our vehicles didn't have number plates. People were driving all over the place and leaving vehicles on sidewalks. We explained to the government that none of the means of transportation were defined by regulations and finally they accepted this. So now we are growing together,” says Eugine. “On the one hand, we have some additional duties imposed by the government. On the other, the government is helping us a lot. The development of a huge number of cycling lanes changed the attitude of locals not only towards riding bicycles, but also scooters. It was no longer considered to be something weird.” 

Hired 26 people on the spot

Zelectra was the smallest company in the market with the fewest vehicles - 300 scooters and 350 mopeds. The company bought scooters from the manufacturer in China, whereas the mopeds were manufactured locally. They didn't build a software platform from scratch. They used the ATOM Mobility solution. Eugene explains that it was important for them to find a reliable partner and not to struggle with development as they were not sure that they could easily find a common language with developers.

“All that we heard and all that we have been told before - it doesn't work that way here in Kyiv. We talked a great deal with different European companies. And what we said is that we, in contrast to them, have to be available 24/7. Our vehicles are often stolen. They have been thrown into the River Dnepra. That's why the first month was tough - we gradually realized that it was one situation how we had imagined things would be, but the reality was completely different. We suddenly had to collect a team of 26 people. We had to buy cars and brand them for the team to be able to serve all vehicles. We paid all our taxes and during the season we succeeded in building a really good team where everyone felt needed,” says Sergey.

“Looking back at our first season, I would say that we are happy that we didn't embarrass ourselves,” adds Eugine. “Our app has 10,000 downloads. We succeeded in creating the rhythm of changing batteries and making vehicles available on streets that are fully operational. By the way, battery life is not as long as the manufacturers had said it would. Batteries had to be changed twice as often. However, during the best day of the season, 2,500 rides were taken on 250 scooters. And this is what we are really proud of, because it is not easy to always find our scooters, but people were apparently looking for them.” 

Here to stay for the greener future

Zelectra doesn't reveal the exact number of vehicles they are preparing for the next season, but the amount is going to be significantly higher. In addition, they are planning to launch their service in three to four new cities in Ukraine. “We are here to stay. We do really care about our service, because we want Kyiv to become a green city. We hope that the fact that we are here has also helped the local government to rethink infrastructure, as well as its attitude towards the environment. If we get the chance, we would like to have an all-electric business of scooters, bikes, mopeds, electric cars. We will try to expand and use everything electric to help Kiev become a greener city,” says Eugene, revealing the company’s mission.

Is ATOM Mobility platform suitable for hotels and guest houses that wants to operate a small fleet of scooter or bikes as an additional service for guests? - Yes, sure.

It is even possible to get 20% of the total population in a small town to become users of the e-scooter sharing platform. That’s what the story of the GOON is about. The company operates in the small town of Zarasai, Lithuania with a population around 8 000 people and reached almost 2 000 users in the first few months.

Launch date: Spring 2020

Country: Lithuania

Fleet: Segway MAX

Web page: https://www.facebook.com/GOONZarasuose

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/goon-e-scooter-sharing/id1498086237

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=goon.app

“We got the idea for this business from the example of big cities where big companies like BOLT, CityBee, and others operate. We also took into account the lack of entertainment for the guests and residents of the small resort city of Zarasai,” says GOON’s founder Darius Kilbauskas, sharing the story of starting his own business.

Drew on Support for Startups to Begin

GOON started at the moment when its founders decided to use support from the Zarasai Startup training programme for young entrepreneurs. It is a project funded by the European Social Fund Agency and initiated by the National Institute for Social Integration. The GOON team was selected to participate in the programme in April 2019. Within a couple of months, they were joined by business consultant Ugnius Savickas, who diligently traveled to regular meetings with the project participants. This is how the business idea succeeded.

GOON scooters near the lake

The Existing Platform is Affordable 

Just to give you an idea of how small the town is - only 8,000 people live there. GOON started to offer its services at the beginning of the 2020 season and had 1,700 users which amounts to 20% of the total population!

“Our scooter sharing fleet has only nine scooters, so the number of users is really impressive. In addition, this year was different - many chose to stay in Zarasai for the whole summer due to the pandemic or visited a neighbouring country - Latvia. And the biggest number of tourists also came from Latvia and one of its largest cities – Daugavpils which is only 25 km away. Zarasai has beautiful nature, lakes, and excellent infrastructure to offer tourists,” says Darius. In addition, he mentions that original and attention-grabbing e-scooter design, advertising, and ATOM Mobility’s modern rental platform played a significant role in creating a success story. “The app by ATOM has never let us down and has met all our expectations. We are grateful to those professionals for their quality work,” says Darius, thanking his partners.

The collaboration with ATOM Mobility started unexpectedly. Initially, the team was looking for a GPS device for IoT scooters. “We were interested in how much it would cost to build our own platform. Then we realized that this amount would be far too high for our small business. I found a Lithuanian company TELTONIKA that produces devices we were interested in. And then a representative of this company hooked us up with ATOM. This saved us a lot of money and time. ATOM helped us to launch the app in 20 days!” says Darius.

“This is proof for us that even with the super small fleet, it is possible to run successful operations. And the ATOM Mobility platform is also an affordable solution on such a small scale. It helps small businesses such as guest houses and hotels to offer e-scooters or bikes as an additional entertainment option,” comments ATOM Mobility CEO Arturs Burnins.

Aim to Entertain and Surprise

Currently, there are two people involved in the team of GOON. Darius is the supervisor of the e-scooter park and is responsible for administrative work. While his colleague Augustė is responsible for increasing the customer base and overseeing advertising and design. “We do everything ourselves,” says Darius proudly.

This is just the beginning of GOON. The company is considering expansion and not only in terms of buying additional vehicles and also working in other neighbouring cities but also in increasing diversity and choice so that it is possible to attract and surprise both tourists and locals.

If you ever visit Zarasai, don’t forget to take an e-scooter and enjoy the most beautiful route around Lake Zarasas, an 11 km circle. Darius also recommends visiting the watermill along the route in Šlininkai and enjoying a great meal there.