Superpedestrian的Link滑板车赌局终结：融资1.25亿美元，2万辆滑板车被拍卖

做的是什么生意

Operated the Link shared e-scooter brand, running fleets in 60+ cities across 11 countries and differentiating with diagnostic and pedestrian-safety software.

启动资金：$125M Series C (2022)

起因

Superpedestrian initially got into the shared scooter business — the Link brand — in 2020, when it acquired substantially all of the assets of Boston-based Zagster, part of a wave of consolidation during the COVID-19 pandemic. It bet that fleets with self-diagnostic software and a pedestrian-safety system could win permits and riders against rivals like Bird and Tier.

经过

Eighteen months before the shutdown, Superpedestrian raised $125M in a Series C round of equity and debt from investors including Jefferies, Antara Capital, the Sony Innovation Fund, FM Capital, Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and Citi. It still laid off staff months after the round, pulled out of Chicago in September 2023 citing competitive difficulties, and ended 2023 with more layoffs. Fresh funding and a potential merger looked close as recently as November 2023, but the talks fell apart.

结果

On December 15, 2023, staff were told U.S. operations would shut down at year-end and European assets would be offered for sale; workers spent the final two weeks retrieving scooters from cities before facilities locked for the last time on December 31. Two online auctions then sold more than 20,000 scooters and other equipment from cities including Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York, with the first auction opening January 23, 2024.

可借鉴之处

1.25亿美元缓冲和软件优势无法解决车队经济性问题：当城市许可成本和单次骑行费用仍不盈利时，融资只会推迟关停，而硬件最终会被拍卖。