Mobility, Delivery Platforms Saw Eye Watering Growth in Q2
Uber, Lyft, Lime, DoorDash earnings; Auckland City Rail Link; MobilityVC backs Endera
From my humble vantage, Uber’s Q2 looked to be another quarter of consistent growth, with mobility bookings up 20% and delivery expanding 25%, thanks to strong Uber One usage. Expect that delivery growth to continue, as Dara was especially bullish about the Delivery Hero acquisition. Assuming the deal closes, the grocery, retail and restaurant segment will overtake ridehailing as the biggest driver of gross bookings.
It seems like investors are thinking more about robots than restaurants, as the stock fell as much as 6.5%, amid concerns about the company’s $10 billion in AV spending plans. Uber and its partner Wayve just scored robotaxi licenses in London, while the former should have operations live in 15 cities by EOY.
Over at Lyft, bookings rose 23% to $5.5 billion, with revenue beating analysts’ expectations. Active riders hit 30.5 million, a record high, showing the company is recapturing demand after a few quarters of stagnation. Of note: approx. 30% of rides in North America were linked to a partnership (e.g. DoorDash, United) and its Nashville Waymo AV depot should be fully up and running by October.
Scaling down, Lime reported its first quarter as a public company, seeing revenue climb 24% YoY to $304 million, while the fleet size grew a similar 22%. While the company reported an Adjusted EBITDA of $84M, costs grew faster than revenue and the company isn’t truly profitable yet; either way, investors were giddy with the results.
Capping things off with a focus on delivery, DoorDash saw total orders up 27% YoY while GOV popped 36%, implying the AOV is improving nicely. About one third of that growth comes from its recent acquisition of Deliveroo. Membership is driving a lot of value creation, with DashPass members placing approx. 75% of total orders across the U.S. grocery and retail categories. Revenue beat expectations but profit came a bit short, thanks in part to investments in robotics; overall, investors were happy with that mix. DoorDash believes Dot will deliver a “high single-digit percentage of orders” in its largest test market by year’s end.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
Green grids! California’s electrical grid produced over half of its capacity via solar power in May, a global first for any major network. Expect further greenification thanks to complimentary initiatives like Massachusetts expanding its vehicle-to-grid incentives and Base Power raising $1B for backyard batteries.
Big money: Moove raised $250M at a $2.1B valuation, led by Mubadala, Toyota Woven and Ion Pacific. The money will build out its AV fleet ownership and a robotic maintenance network. Meanwhile, India’s River raised $120M to scale production of its beefy mopeds. On the smaller side, Fuvex pulled in €3M for dual-use drones and Scuter raised €3.5 million (I feel like that brand name desperately needs an umlaut.)
Doubling down on Vegas: Following in Zoox’s driverless footsteps, Motional plans to also begin paid, commercial robotaxi service in Sin City by year’s end.
Rail down under: After a relatively speedy decade of construction, Auckland, New Zealand’s new City Rail Link is set to open to the public on September 13th. As the country’s largest-ever infrastructure investment, the project adds a number of new rail stations under the city center. Combined with an earlier electrification project, this transforms the region’s older rail lines into a frequent S-Bahn / RER-like suburban metro network.
Carsharing saga: Beleaguered OEM Stellantis is selling its Free2Move carshare biz to Mutares, with the price undisclosed. Car cos love to spin up new mobility businesses, throw a few somewhat related ideas at the wall for 5-10 years, and then pivot back to “let’s sell a few more trucks.” I expect the D.C. operations will be shuttered shortly. Meanwhile, Bolt is expanding its own carsharing product to Warsaw.
California Infill Summit: Can we actually get things built in California? The Council of Infill Builders is convening the people working to make sure the answer is YES. Join builders, contractors, lawyers, lenders, utilities, elected officials, planners, community organizations, sustainability professionals and students on August 19-20 at the LA Athletic Club. Register now.
A tough, but delicious business: The pandemic has changed the restaurant biz forever, more than doubling the the amount of orders handled via delivery, while decimating downtown restos that relied on the office worker lunch rush. L.A. Material breaks down how one hot new restaurant manages to make their numbers work.
MobilityVC backs Endera: Our team was delighted to announce a new investment into Endera, a manufacturer of premium specialty buses, with electric, CNG and propane-powered options.
Are we banning the right bikes? After a spate of deadly ebike crashes, NYC is looking to crack down on the proliferation electric bicycles and scooters, many of which are already illegal to sell or operate. Across the country, LA is also looking to up regulations. But as Streetsblog rightly argues, these well-intentioned bills seem more likely to punish safe and lawful ebike riders, while doing little about the rise of what are essentially electric motorcycles for kidz.
Trucks, trucks and more trucks 😢: Rivian’s quarterly profit popped 27% to $1.66B, and it achieved consolidated gross profitability, as it began delivering its smaller R2 SUV to customers. Ford finally revealed more details on its "cheap” EV, the $28,350 Fathom electric pickup. And Lucid delayed its plans to roll out a more smaller and affordable vehicle, in a bid to conserve cash.
OMF musings: The Open Mobility Foundation released MDS 2.1, expanding mode and services scope. They’re also hiring for a Communications and Engagement Manager, a Community Specification Development Manager and an Operations Manager. And join their Seattle Mixer on Aug. 26.
A few good links: Protectionism comes for physical AI. Miami Beach Commission undoes purple curb loading zones. NYC advocates for cracking down on placard abuse. Amtrak pushes ahead with problematic reorganization. Montreal explores transit expansion. As does Northern Indiana. Brussels court bans shared scooters and bikes. Amazon net sales climb 20%, as grocery sales expand, Amazon Now grows 80% in a quarter and AI spending eats into FCF. Can AVs “behave”? Arcimoto assets sold to new hold co. FRA updates HSR noise regulations. Meet the entirety of Uber’s AV investment ecosystem. Lyft’s Freenow buys Irish taxi dispatcher Lynk and Swift. Grab launches AV shuttles in Singapore. Colorado looks to launch regional rail. Daimler shutters Freightliner plant in Oregon; shame to see more West Coast manufacturing retrenchment. New research shows Uber + Lyft market entry led to an increase in both regional GDP per capita and in seasonal, temporary or otherwise intermittent employment per working age population, but not overall employment or earnings. Ontario shut off its traffic cameras (thanks Doug Ford) and surprise, surprise: dangerous driving has surged. NYCDOT seeks Transit Planner, Bus Priority Analyst and Senior Project Manager, Rapid Bus Network Development. Appeals court reinstates Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Atoms partners with Joby to build vertiports, hires ex-Uber finance chief. Homelessness on LA Metro down 57%. Hamburg picks Umovity for “AI” traffic control. Why Manna picked Tulsa for U.S. drone ops. Google Maps beefs up conversational / discovery features. Tesla and SpaceX to build $16.8B chip fab. EVgo adds Tesla Superchargers. Charged up curbs: NYC expands curbside charing pilot (use It’s Electric’s beautiful hardware, not these gangly wiry guys!) Bay Wheels rebrands to Lyft Bike (can we stop worrying these guys are going to abruptly abandon the micromobility market?) Enough with this slopulism: Massachusetts congresspeople push for free transit (the money would be better served making transit faster and more frequent!)
See you next week!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew