Netherlands-based electric scooter and bicycle rental startup Dott received €30m ($33.9m) yesterday in a series A round co-led by e-commerce and media group Naspers and backed by media company Axel Springer.
The round was co-led by EQT Ventures, a branch of investment firm EQT Partners, and included Felix Capital, FJ Labs, U-Start Club and several undisclosed angel investors. The corporates participated through subsidiaries Naspers Ventures and Axel Springer Digital Ventures.
Founded in 2018, Dott operates a mobile app that allows users to hire electric scooters. It is currently operating in the cities of Brussels, Paris, Lyon and Milan, and will use a portion of the funding to launch in certain cities in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands in the coming months.
The funding will support work on Dott’s e-bike, which is in the pre-production stage, in addition to the next generation of the company’s scooters, which will be equipped with a swappable battery.
Martin Tschopp, chief operating office of Naspers Ventures, said: “The dense nature of cities in Europe is ideal for e-scooter and e-bike sharing for short commutes – most trips are much more efficiently covered than with a car.
“Dott has experienced good traction in its first few months of operation and is leading with a local, sustainable and safety-first mindset, which is appealing to Naspers.”
The company has not confirmed whether the funding represents an extension to the $22.7m round it disclosed in December 2018, which was also co-led by Naspers and EQT Ventures and backed by many of the same investors.