Whizz bet $12M that delivery workers want subscribed e-bikes, not shared ones

E-bike subscriptions for gig delivery workers: bike, maintenance, anti-theft protection and service in one monthly fee.

$12M in June 2024 — $5M equity led by Leta Capital and $7M debt from Flashpoint VC.

CEO Mike Peregudov and his co-founders came to New York from Russia after building and selling subscription businesses: Peregudov's meal-kit service Partiya Edy sold to Yandex in 2019 for $25 million, and co-founders Alex Mironov, Ksenia Proka and Artem Serbovka sold e-bike subscription platform Moy Device to a private equity firm. They founded Whizz in 2022.

By June 2024 Whizz had 2,500 e-bikes across NYC and Jersey City, ARR above $8 million (self-reported), 3.5x year-over-year growth, and a proprietary ERP it credits with 35% cost cuts and an 85% fleet utilisation rate — the software can even remotely brick stolen bikes. The raise funds e-mopeds and expansion toward Boston, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington DC, targeting 40,000 bikes in the NYC area within three years.

NYC's 60,000-plus gig couriers need daily transport, and most are immigrants without the credit scores banks require — Whizz scores them itself.

The main competitor Zoomo charges just under $200 a month on average and closed its San Francisco operation in 2022, leaving a first-mover opening.

HaaS fails when capital-heavy blitzscaling meets thin margins; Peregudov argues lean, software-run operations fix the unit economics instead.

Batteries are UL certified with Samsung cells and bikes are built for 1,000 miles a month, matching regulation and courier earnings alike.

Regulation that scares rivals can be a moat: being certified when the rules tighten turns compliance into a first-mover advantage.

As of 5 June 2024 Whizz planned to manage 40,000 e-bikes in the NYC area within three years, build e-mopeds and work down the East Coast; it projected EBITDA positivity in two to three months and profitability within nine (self-reported). With bikes assembled in China, new 25% US tariffs loomed — Peregudov said Whizz owns its IP and can move production to India or Vietnam.