Superpedestrian, Creator of the Copenhagen Wheel, Raises $16.5M in Series B1 Funding Round to Deploy Advanced Bike Sharing Technologies
Superpedestrian, Creator of the Copenhagen Wheel, Raises $16.5M in Series B1 Funding Round to Deploy Advanced Bike Sharing Technologies
BOSTON, May 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Superpedestrian, the transportation robotics company that has transformed e-bikes with the Copenhagen Wheel, announced today that it completed a $16.5 million Series B1 round of financing to bring to market new technologies for electric-bike sharing, developed in stealth in its Cambridge, MA R&D headquarters.
The financing comes from investors Charles Kim of Extol Capital LLC, who also serves as Managing Director at China Renaissance in the United States, Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and other prominent investors. This brings Superpedestrian's total investment to nearly $44 million.
As ride-hailing companies worldwide begin owning fleets of vehicles, and with the boom in scooter and e-bike sharing services, operators contend with the challenges of managing and maintaining large numbers of motorized vehicles. Safety, reliability, and ride quality are key for users, and cost of fleet ownership over time can be a make-or-break factor for operators.
"Superpedestrian's technology overcomes major issues faced by the industry," said Assaf Biderman, CEO of Superpedestrian. "Our e-bikes autonomously manage themselves through onboard diagnostics, self-protection, and self-calibration, and then connect to a remote maintenance system that can service the entire fleet. If you rely mostly on users to report that something is broken, that's too late. We know what's going on inside each of our e-bikes and can resolve most issues before they occur," Biderman added.
Since 2014, Superpedestrian has been investing significant R&D resources to develop sensors, embedded controllers, and software for vehicle-sharing applications. It has acquired one of the industry's deepest bases of expertise and built a worldwide portfolio with dozens of patents to protect its IP.
"We always seek to invest in companies that develop deep technologies and can also scale in Asia," said Mr. Kim. "Superpedestrian is exactly in that sweet spot given the need generated by Asia's booming ride-hailing and bike-sharing sectors."
Superpedestrian's fleet offering also includes a cloud-based service for efficient deployment of maintenance and battery-swapping operations, and the company's technology can similarly be applied to shared scooters and mopeds. For more information about Superpedestrian and their e-bike sharing solutions, visit: https://www.superpedestrian.com/fleet.
About Superpedestrian
Superpedestrian is a transportation robotics company located in Cambridge, MA. Founded out of MIT with operations starting in 2013, Superpedestrian develops new technologies for small-scale electric vehicles with a focus on urban mobility applications.
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SOURCE Superpedestrian
