Ford has recently acquired a San Francisco based electric scooter sharing company- Spin for $40 million. The deal adds scooters to Ford's future transportation services which include autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles and on-demand shuttle service. Last month, we told you about the possibility of a partnership between Ford and Volkswagen to develop electric vehicle solutions and now we see it charting new avenues.
Spin is a San Francisco based scooter sharing start-up which is one of the companies that has made scooters popular on the streets of USA. The company is planning to expand operations in 60 markets and therefore needed a deep-pocketed acquitter. "Spin is an important step towards realizing our ambitious vision for the future of urban mobility. As more people consider scooters to be a viable mobility option, now is the right time for Ford to work closely with Spin," the US automaker said in a statement.
However, San-Francisco authorities have allowed only two companies to provide scooter-sharing services- Bird and Lime while have barred many including Spin. Spin has also sought permission to operate in Santa Monica but was not welcomed by city officials even there. The company currently operates in nine cities and five college campuses, and says it has facilitated more than 1 million rides.
Other, scooter sharing platforms which are prominent in the US are Bird and Lime and they operate at a much larger scale compared to Spin. Spin was started in 2016 and till date has procured $ 8 million from investors like Grishin Robotics, CRCM Ventures, and Exponent which is far less compared to $ 415 million and $ 467 million that Bird and Lime have raised respectively.
