Netherlands-based electric scooter sharing startup Dott has secured €20m ($22.7m) in a funding round co-led by e-commerce and media group Naspers that included media company Axel Springer, according to TechCrunch.
The round was co-led by EQT Ventures, a subsidiary of private equity group EQT, and featured FJ Labs, U-Start Club, DN Capital, Felix Capital and various angel investors. Axel Springer participated through corporate venturing subsidiary Axel Springer Digital Ventures.
Founded earlier this year, Dott is putting together a service that will enable users to hire an electric scooter or bicycle and pay for it as they go using the company’s mobile app.
The capital will fund an early 2019 e-scooter pilot at Parisian startup campus Station F, before Dott looks to expand into additional European cities. It was founded by Maxim Romain, formerly head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for bicycle and scooter sharing platform Ofo.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Romain said: “I think a lot of the companies grow too fast in the sense that they do not necessarily have the product that can enable them to be profitable but because they want to win the race.
“For us, we are taking the view that we really need to focus on the product so we have the right unit economics and we can be sustainable. If you want to make it happen, you have to make it happen in a sustainable way.”