According to foreign media TechCrunch, Japanese shared electric vehicle platform “Luup” recently announced that it has raised JPY 4.5 billion (approximately USD 30 million) in its D round of financing, consisting of JPY 3.8 billion in equity and JPY 700 million in debt.
This round of financing was led by Spiral Capital, with existing investors ANRI, SMBC Venture Capital and Mori Trust, as well as new investors 31 Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, following suit. As of now, “Luup” has raised a total of USD 68 million. According to insiders, the company’s valuation has exceeded USD 100 million, but the company declined to comment on this valuation.
In recent years, the Japanese government has been actively relaxing regulations on electric vehicles to further stimulate the development of micro-transportation industry. Starting from July this year, the amendment to Japan’s Road Traffic Act will allow people to use electric motorcycles without a driver’s license or helmet, as long as they ensure that the speed does not exceed 20 kilometers per hour.
CEO Daiki Okai stated in an interview that the next goal of “Luup” is to expand its electric motorcycle and electric bicycle business to major cities and tourist attractions in Japan, reaching a scale comparable to traditional public transportation to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of daily commuters. “Luup” also plans to transform underutilized land into parking stations and deploy parking spots in places such as office buildings, apartments, and shops.
Japanese cities are developed around railway stations, so residents living in areas far from transportation hubs have very inconvenient travel. Okai explained that “Luup”‘s goal is to build a high-density transportation network to fill the gap in transportation convenience for residents living far from railway stations.
“Luup” was founded in 2018 and launched shared electric vehicles in 2021. Its fleet size has now grown to about 10,000 vehicles. The company claims that its application has been downloaded more than one million times and has deployed 3,000 parking spots in six cities in Japan this year. The company’s goal is to deploy 10,000 parking spots by 2025.
The company’s competitors include local startups Docomo Bike Share, Open Streets, and US-based Bird and South Korea’s Swing. However, “Luup” currently has the largest number of parking spots in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.
Okai stated that with the amendment of the Road Traffic Law coming into effect in July of this year, the number of people commuting with electric vehicles will increase dramatically. Additionally, the high-density micro-traffic network of “Luup” will also provide impetus for the deployment of new transportation infrastructure such as drones and delivery robots.
Post time: May-04-2023
