$3.4M Seed Round Will Help Cities Scale and Leverage the Potential of Micromobility
Portland, OR - May 23, 2019 -- Ride Report, the market-leading solution for cities to integrate new forms of micromobility, like bikes, scooters, and small electric vehicles, today announces a $3.4m seed round to strengthen partnerships with mobility operators and expand to serve more cities around the world. The round was led by Homebrew, with Urban Innovation and Better Ventures also participating.
“The chaotic success of the first year of shared e-scooters has made clear the need for a system that helps cities analyze and streamline the way they regulate their streets.” said Satya Patel, Partner at Homebrew. “Homebrew believes in the powerful promise of micromobility to transform our cities for the better, and Ride Report enables cities to make that promise a reality.”
Cities are seeking solutions to growing congestion, increased environmental pressure, and changing population needs. Technology companies hoping to fill the void have been met with resistance, from public outcry to cease-and-desist orders from cities. Ride Report’s mission is to enable widely deployed micromobility in cities. The service provides seamless communication between operators and the cities they serve, enabling win-win scenarios that expand access to micromobilty options while ensuring the programs achieve broader city goals of safety, equity, and sustainability.
“To build cities that work better for everyone, we urgently need new, innovative ways to get around crowded streets, which bikes and e-scooters are just beginning to deliver,” said Ride Report CEO and Co-Founder William Henderson. “This is a situation where cities need to welcome rapid change, but they also need to maintain control of their streets. With Ride Report, we’re making these unknown developments safer and more manageable for cities so they can maximize the potential micromobility represents.“
Ride Report is a leader in new mobility around the world, partnering with 16 mobility operators across 5 countries and more than 30 cities. City partners include Madrid, Spain, which has more than a dozen scooter operators, and Austin, TX, which has the most permitted shared mobility vehicles deployed in the U.S.
“Cities are still cautious after the rollout of rideshare, yet know they have work to do to reverse the current car-centric design of our streets,” said Michal Nakashimada, Product Manager at Ride Report. “As important as monitoring these companies is, city planners shouldn’t have to spend their days policing rather than planning. We created this software specifically to reduce time spent on these daily tasks so transportation officials can get back to doing what they do best - making their cities work for their residents and harnessing the data to ensure micromobility programs meet broader city goals.”
Ride Report’s basic compliance service is completely free to cities. In less than an hour, cities can set up regions of concern, customize compliance alerts, and begin receiving their daily Ride Report via email. As cities move from pilot phases to permanent programs, they can upgrade to Ride Report’s premium service to conduct regular data-based audits, offer dynamic performance-based vehicle caps, and evaluate the success of their micromobility program. Ride Report easily pays for itself by reducing staff time while increasing revenue by scaling the number of vehicles and trips offered by operators.
"The first thing I do when I get to my desk each day is check the Ride Report dashboard,” said Shannon Brown, Shared Mobility Project Coordinator at City of Austin. “With an array of operators and thousands of vehicles on Austin’s streets, Ride Report helps us keep track and work to ensure operators are complying with the rules. We now have our enforcement officers using Ride Report’s tools to reduce their time tracking down vehicles that have been flagged for violations or complaints."
About Ride Report
Ride Report translates between city staff and mobility operators to create sustainable, efficient, and equitable transportation systems. Uniquely positioned to facilitate information sharing between cities and operators, Ride Report helps cities overcome the different values, processes, and language barriers to build a collaborative relationship based on shared facts. Founded in 2015 to help cities proactively manage micromobility infrastructure, Ride Report has become a must-have service for cities to quickly scale new forms of micromobility, while giving them insights to create and enforce regulations as the landscape evolves.
By providing city planners the tools they need to manage these new forms of transportation, cities can integrate new mobility options that serve their communities while moving quickly to address the urgent issues of climate change, congestion, and traffic violence. In addition to Ride Report’s partnerships with mobility operators, the company also works closely with standards and governing organizations including the North American Bikeshare Association, SharedStreets, and MobilityData.org.
Ride Report provides a talented and experienced technology team that acts as an advocate and ally to cities for operator success. A mix of technology and government veterans, the team comes from Apple, moovel, Square, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and brings deep experience in micromobility, infrastructure development, transit policy, and data and privacy standards. To find out more, please visit ridereport.com.
Contact
press@ridereport.com