Friday, May 25, 2018

Bird, Other Scooters Companies Face Temporary Pullback In San Francisco

Santa Monica-based dockless scooter startup Bird, which is backed by Valor Equity Partners, Index Ventures, Craft Ventures, Goldcrest Capital, Tusk Ventures and Upfront Ventures, is facing a temporary pullback in San Francisco, after San Francisco issued new rules to obtain a permit in the city. Bird, along with competitors Lime and Spin, has already peppered San Francisco with its "last mile" transportation scooters, which users can unlock and use using their smartphone. The City of San Francisco's transportation agency, the SFMTA, issued its permit applications on Thursday, requiring that scooter companies to pull their scooters off the city streets by June 4th, or face impound and fines of their scooters; the city said it will not start reviewing applications for the scooters until June 7th. Bird--which has taken an Uber-like philosophy to launching in markets, by basically launching in cities without bothering to ask for permission from cities--has been battling city regulations across a number of its cities after outrage by citizens and cities. The company just relaunched this week in Austin after scooter companies there were forced off the streets by an emergency ordinance, and it is in a back and forth in Scottsdale, Arizona over similar issues. In Honolulu, Bird's competitor, Lime, also faces stiff opposition from government, where the major has said he wants to jail and fine riders of those scooters.