Russian e-scooter leader Urent secures $26 million from corporate and venture investors

Urent, Russia’s largest electric scooter rental operator, has raised 2.09 billion rubles (some $26 million, a considerable amount by local standards) in a round led by MTS. The mobile operator contributed 740 million rubles alongside private asset manager VPE Capital and state-owned fund VEB Ventures, which injected 700 and 650 million rubles, respectively, into the startup.

Urent claims to control more than 50% of the domestic kicksharing market in terms of fleet size. It has deployed 60,000 e-scooters — up from 30,000 engines less than one year ago — across some 60 Russian cities.

The company will use the funding to expand its fleet to some 130,000 engines. It will also “develop rental infrastructure, open service centers, launch B2B products, train personnel and enhance end-user safety,” according to a statement from VEB Ventures.

“The experience of other players shows that ecosystem integration is a powerful growth driver for scooter-sharing services [and a way for them to realize their potential as] market leaders. By cooperating with one of the largest ecosystems in Russia and by attracting investment partners that will support urban development, we can help provide environmentally-friendly electric transportation as an option for millions of Russians.” — Urent co-founder Andrey Azarov.

The company has plans to raise additional debt financing “in the near future.” This will bring the total invested capital in Urent to “more than 3 billion rubles by the start of the 2022 riding season.” 

Commenting on the deal, VEB Ventures CEO Oleg Teplov said he was “delighted with Urent’s advanced level of technology,”  citing as an example the company’s 3D printers to produce plastic spare parts on-demand. 

Urent started its activities in 2018 in Krasnodar, Southern Russia. In the spring of 2019, the startup raised 150 million rubles ($2.3 million) from individual investors, as reported by RBC.

In April 2021, Urent secured 1.2 billion rubles (nearly $16 million) in equity funding and loans. The investor pool included Citimobil, a Russian ride-sharing company, Sber, the state-controlled digital and finance giant, and Sistema SmartTech, a new venture vehicle of the Sistema conglomerate. The latter — which also owns MTS — contributed 200 million rubles ($2.65 million) to the deal. Urent’s founders also provided an undisclosed amount.

Urent’s leadership is challenged by Whoosh, which used 45,000 high-tech e-scooters across 24 Russian cities in late 2021.

Whoosh has plans to enter the EU market — starting from Lisboa and Budapest in the first half of 2022. Whoosh is backed by Ultimate Capital Fund, a Cyprus-based fund with Russian founders, and VTB Group, a Russian state-owned financial institution. They injected $25 million in total into the startup. 

There is room for some 350,000-400,000 e-scooters in Russia, according to VEB Ventures data shared with East-West Digital News. “While the market is far from saturation, the evolutions of the urban infrastructure and transportation systems stimulate considerably the demand for short-route transportation,” the fund’s analysts believe.