Ride Report blog

Ride Report raises $10 million Series A to make micromobility work for cities, operators, and the people they serve

Written by Meghan Prichard | Mar 12, 2020 2:00:00 PM

The Ride Report team


Today, Ride Report is excited to announce a raise of $10 million in Series A funding, in a round led by Unusual Ventures. 

This partnership allows us to deepen our commitment to helping cities to provide safe, equitable, and environmentally efficient transportation options to their communities.

We’re at a critical juncture in the micromobility industry. In 2020, we’ve monitored almost 100,000 unique vehicles. Our product is used in more than 60 cities and we have relationships with many major micromobility operators. 

It is time to revitalize our streets and build a path to delivering new modes of transportation, or fall back on the car culture status quo.

A new way forward means establishing trust now, which Ride Report has cultivated from both public agencies and private operators.

 

A pivotal moment for micromobility

 

At Ride Report, our vision for the future is one that prioritizes people-friendly communities and a robust transportation system built for everyone. So, when e-scooters appeared on city streets in late 2018, we recognized the monumental shift upon us. This proliferation of new micromobility options provided a larger awakening to new mobility beyond our familiar modes of walking and biking. 

But as exciting as this moment is, it’s also scary. For cities, it means confidently creating and adjusting policies in a new industry, and educating users and operators alike about enforcement and compliance. For operators, it means balancing city needs and profitability. 

That’s where Ride Report bridges the gap.

Funding from Unusual Ventures is the catalyst we need to make micromobility work — and thrive.

 

About Ride Report’s toolset

 

We know that micromobility works when there is mutual trust and respect between cities and operators. Ride Report is the complete micromobility management toolset for both entities, from city staff, planners, and elected officials to operators’ field operations teams and engineers. 

With Ride Report, micromobility just works. It’s like having a micromobility program assistant — officials and operators decrease their micromobility program barrier to entry, move more quickly, and do their jobs more effectively with the reassurance that the data they’re relying on is accurate and that they’re decreasing program administration costs.

 

Ride Report’s Report feature gives cities and operators a single source of truth for micromobility data to ensure compliance with local regulations like cap numbers and distribution requirements. It has multiple views including daily, weekly, and monthly.

 

Ride Report is working in more than 60 cities across the globe, from Portland, Oregon, to Austin, Texas, to Wellington, New Zealand, providing a single source of truth to manage micromobility. 

Government officials anticipate challenges and proactively address them to better serve their constituents. Our data, reporting, and monitoring features are used as a central pillar of their compliance and auditing workflows. 

The Ride Report team works alongside city officials to help them understand the unknowns in the new world that is micromobility, and advise them to make the best decisions around metrics and regulations for their citizens. We allow them to quickly and confidently provide program and policy guidance and enforcement. 

“As micromobility expands throughout the Denver region, we want to be sure there is a consistent way for us and partner agencies to calculate key metrics, evaluate performance, and understand how micromobility supports public goals,” says Emily Lindsey, transportation technology strategist with the Denver Regional Council of Governments. “We hope that working with Ride Report will help us and partners plan for, and adapt to, the changing mobility landscape.”

Our vehicle support offerings are also constantly expanding. We have pedal bikes, scooters, e-bikes, and mopeds in Ride Report.

 

Ride Report’s Explore feature aggregates start and end trip data to help cities understand rider behavior to build better policies, like improved scooter parking infrastructure.

 

Providing a single source of truth for compliance and auditing benefits the operators we work with, too. Operators, like Bird, Lime, and Lynx, know they can trust our tool. By using Ride Report, they see what the city sees, and can confidently understand how local regulations are applied, identify data gaps, and address potential compliance issues.

It’s important that operators have compliance tools that integrate into their local operations and workflows in every market. And it cuts regulatory costs for operators. Operators across the globe trust us. We currently integrate with 19 operators across North America, Australia, South America, and Europe. 

 

Ride Report and Unusual Ventures

 

We’re particular about venture capital. When looking for investors, it’s critical they are aligned with our mission and values. We found this with Unusual Ventures, and are thankful for the valuable insight from Andy Johns and the rest of the Unusual Ventures team.

Just like us, they share a deep-seated commitment to equity and inclusion.

And, just like us, they see the opportunity for a radical new way for people to navigate the communities in which they live. They understand that it might take time, but the payoff will be monumental. 

Unusual Ventures invested in Ride Report because they believe in what we do and how we’re doing it. They know our team is uniquely positioned to make micromobility work for the long haul.

“We’re entering an era of cooperation that’s going to open up the entire micromobility sector,” says Andy Johns, a partner at Unusual Ventures. “That gets to the core of what Ride Report is about and their belief in the future of mobility — that operators and cities will increasingly work together to help the industry grow.”

This funding will allow us to continue pursuing our mission by growing our company. We look forward to working more closely with our partners, both cities and operators, to make micromobility work. 

 

Working at Ride Report

 

Our commitment to equity and trust extends beyond providing valuable data and decision-making guidance to cities and operators. We also strive to ensure that our values are reflected within the workplace.

At Ride Report, we carefully develop our recruitment, hiring, and retention processes with the goal of providing a safe and equitable workplace.

Explicitly defined communication practices are critical for accomplishing community, company, and product goals. We share information transparently. We provide multiple avenues for having conversations. We are intentional about the way we interact with each other, including how we apologize, creating a space where people feel comfortable and safe asking for what they need and setting boundaries.

In that same spirit, salary negotiation is not part of our hiring process. We believe employees should be compensated according to their role rather than their ability to negotiate, and that allowing negotiation disadvantages particularly underrepresented candidates. Disallowing individual salary negotiation also allows for additional transparency and predictability for the entire team. Salaries are published in our Open Source Employee Guide.

We're particularly interested in creating a diverse team with a broad set of skills and viewpoints. We carefully consider every applicant that takes the time to apply, and would like to build relationships with people who might be the right fit for our team at some point in the future.

Explore the Ride Report Open Source Employee Guide to learn more.