France-based scooter sharing service Cityscoot raised €40m ($49m) in funding on Tuesday from investors including RATP Capital Innovation, the corporate venturing arm of public transport company RATP.
Fleet management service LeasePlan, French state-owned financial institution Caisse des Dépôts and investment firm InVenture Partners also took part. The first two also backed a $16.7m round for Cityscoot in 2016 that was co-led by two undisclosed family offices.
Founded in 2014, Cityscoot operates a network of 1,600 electric scooters around Paris and some surrounding local authorities. Users book and reserve a scooter through a dedicated mobile app and pay between €0.20 and €0.28 per minute for its use.
The scooters include a safety helmet and are available to ride between 7am and midnight. Cityscoot claims it has attracted 70,000 users, who complete between 7,000 and 9,000 journeys a day between them for an average distance of 15km.
The money will enable Cityscoot to grow its network to 5,000 scooters as it prepares to enter the French city of Nice in early 2018, followed by three additional cities across France, Switzerland and Italy later this year.
The cash will also drive further expansion around the Parisian suburbs, and LeasePlan will assist Cityscoot with the efficient deployment of vehicles to its targeted cities.