American electric scooter company Bird is preparing to buy one of their European rivals Circ. Spread only as a rumor in the first place; this news has been confirmed by Bird today.
At the same time, the company reveals that they are investing another $75 million in new capital. The money is part of Bird’s D-series financing round, which now totals $350 million. In October 2019, the company already raised $275 million with an estimate of $2.5 billion. For its part, Circ raised at the beginning of last year $60 million in a round.
By taking over Circ, Bird bought an operator, which has managed to expand its operation in 43 cities spread over a dozen countries in Europe and the Middle East. Bird will, in addition to the financial arrangements, recover 300 European employees from Circ, the Berlin-based company founded by entrepreneur Lukasz Gadowski.
“Together, Bird and Circ will make it easier for cities to manage micro-mobility programs while continuing to scale and increase the reliability of its service to the tens of millions of people who have embraced shared e-scooters as a new form of sustainable and efficient transportation.”
Thanks to this partnership, Bird, which will increase its chances of gaining operating licenses from European cities, also approached other scooter initiatives in Europe before Circ.
The acquisition will mark the beginning of a consolidation in the scooter market that has been anticipated.
