Why we invested in Voi (again)…


Voi has raised a $160 million Series C and we’re delighted to continue to be part of their journey

By Sam Cash

Voi has raised a $160 million Series C and we’re delighted to continue to be part of their journey.

VOI Technology

 is on the way to being Europe’s leading micromobility company — as evidenced by their incredible growth, leading market position and the impressive pace in which they have been winning city contracts against competitors.

Micromobility has grown from an interesting consumer proposition a few years ago into a viable, large-scale business with massive upside for consumers and cities. With the positive impacts on users’ lives, accelerated by covid, as well as the impact on the environment — we remain hugely excited for Voi and the team. Let’s revisit the simple thesis on why we invested, and how it remains true today:

  • Insane execution speed: Voi is simply the fastest at scaling into new cities. In Europe, they were one of the first to market and have been moving at hyper-speed since; their scaling, execution and user cohort growth are unprecedented. At the time of writing, they’re in more than 50 cities. The team has managed to deal with the complexities of launching in multiple cities, whilst continuing to grow cohorts in existing locations. Voi has become Europe’s preferred operator, winning over two-thirds of city license tenders across Europe, including recent wins in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bern and Cambridge. They’re also leading in terms of fleet efficiency across active markets.
  • Close government regulations: One key hypothesis behind backing a European company is that governments will favour local players and maintaining these relationships as a positive actor will be key. Some cities have grown somewhat weary of private transportation companies, introducing varying regulations. Voi insists on working closely with local governments from day zero and remain mindful of the city-specific regulations and idiosyncrasies. They’ve gone so far as establishing an industry-specific Code of Conduct in Stockholm and other cities, based on their best practices. Voi leads by example and we’re confident this is the path to sustainable growth.
  • ‍Amazing team: Fredrik, Douglas, Carro, Filip, Adam & the rest of the team are some of the hungriest entrepreneurs we’ve met. They’re fighting so many battles in expansion, product, supply chain, hiring and regulatory work — and they continually exceed expectations. The team has proven themselves in terms of recruiting, having hired top talent from companies such as Uber, Bird, Spotify, amongst others. The team is truly international and currently comprised of twenty-seven different nationalities. They’ve been a pleasure to work with, and are truly Scandinavian in marrying ambition, values, hunger with humility and humour (be sure to check out their jobs page -> here)
  • The coldest market is sometimes the best market: The European winner in shared micromobility needs to have a strong home base. Initially, we thought that the cold and dark Nordics may not be the best market to be in but winter usage has been markedly consistent. The seasonality impact has been much lower than expected and Voi’s customer base is highly engaged and loyal. Contrary to our initial beliefs, the Nordics turn out to be a great home base.
  • Fast and high-quality in-house development: Voi have been building integrated full-stack capabilities in-house since the outset, key ingredients like their back-end, connectivity module and new form factors. They’ve built a community of ‘Voi Hunters’ to help with network rebalancing, the vital recharging and relocation of scooters. We’re in awe of the speed in which, both physical and digital products have improved. The company continues to find the right balance between to speed to market, product quality and network uptime

Additionally, we think the highly complementary investor syndicate — Creandum, Balderton, Vostok, LocalGlobe, Raine, Project A & an all-star line up of angels — further adds to the list of why Voi will continue as the European leader.

Beyond being excited about further supporting Voi in their expansion, we’re also excited about the opportunities this current wave of shared mobility provides.

The Project A team in Stockholm, riding Voi e-scooters
The Project A team in Stockholm 🙂