The Future of Enterprise Mobility: Our Investment in RidePanda

Blackhorn Ventures Leads the $7.5M Equity and Debt Round for RidePanda: The One-Stop Shop for Micro Mobility Access for the Enterprise

Blackhorn Ventures is proud to announce our latest investment in Ridepanda, the turnkey platform for micro mobility benefits. Their customers, public agencies and large private enterprises, use Ridepanda to offer their employees the ability to lease the highest-quality e-bikes and scooters through their pre-tax benefits package. Other investors include co-lead Yamaha Ventures, Proeza Ventures, Porsche Ventures, Oyster Ventures, Somersault Ventures, General Catalyst and Urban Us Capital.

With Ridepanda, employers are transforming how their employees commute, starting in New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. Ridepanda customers include Amazon, Google, Intuit, Goodwin Law, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and the County of San Mateo benefit from improved employee wellness and retention, a safe and healthy post-Covid return to work that reduces single occupancy vehicles, and validated and transparent ESG reporting.

Almost 100 million people commute to work in the US on a daily basis. With 60% stating that they would use micromobility solutions, like Ridepanda, to commute daily, there is a massive opportunity to reverse current trends and change habits toward sustainable mobility options. With Ridepanda, employees of public and private sector entities benefit from the convenience, joy and wellness benefits of a zero-emission transportation option.

Urban Transportation Revolution: The Growing Demand for Micromobility

The market for micromobility solutions is growing rapidly, driven by a combination of environmental concerns, urbanization, and technological advancements. According to a report by McKinsey & Company, the global micromobility market is projected to reach $300 billion by 2030, with e-bikes and e-scooters as the fastest-growing segments.  Regulatory changes and infrastructure investments are making it easier for companies like Ridepanda to operate and expand their offerings.

e-bikes and scooters are seeing unprecedented demand: according to Bloomberg NEF, there are nearly 300M electric two- and three-wheelers on the road worldwide, and collectively, they displace about 4x as much oil demand as the entire global fleet of electric cars.

Ridepanda is well-positioned to capitalize on this growing market, with a platform that makes it easy for individuals and organizations to access and use a range of micro-mobility solutions. By leveraging partnerships with local bike shops for test rides and repairs, and their deep expertise from stints at Lime, Bird, and Scoot, the team at Ridepanda is poised to be a leader in the industry and to make a significant impact on the way we think about enterprise transportation.

“Regardless of what value pool you’re in, regardless of what mode you’re in, this is a great story, in our mind, because micromobility is going to grow across the globe. It’s going to grow across form factors, across sharing and ownership,” -Kersten Heineke, a partner at McKinsey and Company and co-leader of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility.

Navigating Urban Mobility Woes

As cities become denser and urban populations grow, the way people move within cities is rapidly changing. COVID left its mark on many major metropolitan areas; in just five US cities we’ve seen 335 miles of new bike lanes in just 24 months. 

With the transportation industry accounting for roughly 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and short trips of less than 5 miles accounting for ½ of all passenger vehicles trips, we can only make a dent in our emissions profile by rapidly shifting to zero-emission transportation choices.  Where a car doesn’t make sense, it can be hard for first-time riders to choose the right electric option that meets their needs. Figuring out insurance, maintenance, and financing also present challenges. That’s where Ridepanda comes in.

Transforming the Way We Move

While working at the first wave of micromobility companies, RidePanda co-founders Charlie Depman and Chinmay Malaviya recognized that the micromobility market was moving towards longer-term ownership vs. shared fleet access. Recent events, including the Paris e-scooter ban, have put increasing pressure on shared fleets.  Meanwhile, as municipalities have launched e-bike rebate programs and the growth of individual ownership models have contributed to  e-bikes growing faster than ever.

When Ridepanda first launched their original online marketplace, they realized that companies offering mobility leases and subscriptions lacked diversity in vehicle form factors, experienced supply chain constraints, and had limited access to repairs due to proprietary components and lack of local support. Where unit economics are challenging and profitability has proved elusive for companies like Bird, Vanmoof, Helbiz and others, Ridepanda benefits from an asset-light revenue model that is generating significantly more revenue per vehicle over the course of the vehicle’s lifetime.

Ridepanda’s new subscription and leasing platform (available at ridepanda.com) features an extensive range of vehicles including cargo e-bikes, mountain e-bikes, road bikes, commuter e-bikes, folding bikes, and high-performance scooters from well-established brands like Giant, Diamondback and Dahon, as well as newer brands like Segway, and Okai. With Ridepanda, employees log in to a customized portal, select their vehicle from a wide variety of form factors, price points, and size/color/frame variations from a diverse set of high quality vendors using standard components.

The shift to a leasing model with owned and operated local hubs (called ‘PandaHubs’) has allowed Ridepanda to have a closer, longer-term relationship with their customer by  allowing them to test ride and choose the right vehicle, and receive ongoing servicing as needed throughout the duration of their lease.

This new round of financing will be leveraged to grow Ridepanda’s team across engineering, sales and marketing, and help accomplish their mission of having 100,000 employees commuting to and from work, living an active lifestyle, on a Ridepanda vehicle by 2026.

Jane Smith, Transportation Demand Manager at Amazon emphasized the value to the company’s 100K+ commuters, saying “Ridepanda’s platform has provided a unique and valuable solution for our employees, offering them a wide array of options and making their commutes more enjoyable and sustainable while reducing our environmental impact.”

Traction to Date: How Ridepanda is changing the commute

Many large companies find themselves in a tricky balancing act: trying to retain talent, achieve decarbonization commitments, and bring employees back to the office in-person. Ridepanda has begun working with some of the largest tech companies in the world to help them tackle all three of these issues. Google, Amazon, and others are seeing their employees jump at the opportunity to have a healthier, environmentally and pocket-friendly way to come back into the office. This offers a seamless introduction to micromobility for the employee, and a compelling employee benefit that improves overall wellness, decreases scope 3 emissions, and increases employee satisfaction.

The right team at the right time

The Ridepanda team is led by Chinmay Malaviya (CEO) and Charlie Depman (CTO). Chinmay sold his last company to Delivery Hero and led strategy at Lime. Charlie has spent his career building partnerships and back-end infrastructure in some of the largest players in the micromobility space including Scoot Networks, which was acquired by Bird. The two have extensive experience scaling startups from zero to scale, and just brought on a new Head of Marketing, Stephen Rodriguez, who was previously at Scoot/Bird. They have surrounded themselves with an outstanding set of experts in micromobility, GTM sales, and engineering. For information on open roles at RidePanda, visit https://ridepanda.breezy.hr/