Last updated: January 13th, 2024
In just a year from 2017–2018, electric scooters exploded from obscure gadgets to common transportation around the world.
When any trend shows such scale and staying power, it’s time to think about how to profit from it.
But compared to cars, for instance, it’s a small and new market. It takes a little more digging to figure out which investable companies are heavily involved.
This post is a summary of what I’ve learned. And if electric scooters are a personal passion of yours, then read through to the end for some totally different ways to monetize your interest as well.
I’m not a financial professional. This is purely my opinion based on my experience and research. Get personal advice from a qualified source before making any financial or legal decisions.
Here’s how to invest in the electric scooter market
The easiest way to get e-scooter market exposure is by buying stock in companies that operate shared-scooter services. As of writing, those include:
- micromobility.com (formerly Helbiz)
- Bird
- Lyft
- Uber (to an extent)
However, the micromobility market is extremely volatile and driven by VC speculation rather than sustainable profits. I am extremely wary of firms with no other significants revenue streams. For instance, micromobility.com and Bird were both delisted in late 2023, and now trade over the counter as penny stocks.
You’ll notice that scooter manufacturers and most rental companies are missing from this list. That’s because they’re privately owned, so their shares aren’t available to everyday investors like you and I.
Perhaps a better option is to invest your own time into creating a side business around electric scooter media, services, or accessories. I believe this is the most exciting option for anyone who enjoys electric scooters for their own sake, and not only as an investment opportunity. Why not monetize what you’re already thinking about?! This article will end with a few ideas on how to do so.
First, let’s look at what stock investment options are (and aren’t) available.
The (very) few electric scooter stocks you can buy
As of writing, the only publicly traded scooter-share companies are parts of larger public companies. (There’s one partial exception, which we’ll also cover below.)
To date, most scooter-share funding has come from venture capital firms as well as from a few large corporations. With venture capital, the name of the game is to make several big but risky investments. Ideally, at least one will pay itself back tens or hundreds of times over, which more than offsets the losses. That’s why new, high-potential markets like electric scooters are appealing to venture firms, but harder for you and I to participate in.
Today, Bird (OTC: BRDS) is a household name in scooter sharing, after launching in early 2017 and playing a key role in the 2017-2018 e-scooter boom. The company went public in November 2021 via merger with a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company, or “blank check company”) called Switchback II Corporation.
After a couple rough years, Bird had fallen from “unicorn” status to a penny stock. In September 2023, Bird acquired Spin from Tier, and was delisted from the NYSE that same month, relegating it to over-the-counter trading as a penny stock. Bird then filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2023.
(Lime, Bird’s main rival in the US, is not publicly traded as of writing. Lime appeared to be working toward an IPO in 2022, but it never materialized, and has not announced any firm plans since then. Lime’s main investors include Uber and Google, both of which are public companies that any of us can buy into for a little bit of indirect exposure to Lime.)
micromobility.com Inc. (OTC: MCOM), formerly Helbiz (HLBZ) is a primarily European competitor to Jump, Spin, and the like. In August 2021, Helbiz went public through a SPAC merger with Shanghai-based GreenVision. In March 2023, it rebranded to micromobility.com Inc. and updating its ticker to MCOM. Helbiz was arguably the first micro-mobility company to go public as a standalone business, not via acquisition by a much larger and more diversified corporation.
However, micromobility.com exited several markets in summer 2023, and now trades over-the-counter after being delisted in December 2023.
Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) is one of the few public companies that operates scooter rentals under its own name. That’s just one tiny portion of Lyft’s total revenue, so the performance of your Lyft shares would mostly reflect other services besides scooters.
Uber (NYSE: UBER) is another public company that plays a large role in the shared electric scooter market. It purchased the e-bike and e-scooter rental company Jump in 2018, but moved Jump to Lime in 2020 as part of a major investment in Lime. These days, Lime is a big player in micro-mobility, so Uber has significant exposure through that investment, but Uber itself is not directly in the scooter market anymore. (Incidentally, Google is another major investor in Lime.)
What about Ford & Spin?
Ford Motors (NYSE: F) wasn’t an obvious micromobility play, but the automotive behemoth actually owned the rental service Spin from late 2018 until March 2022, when it sold Spin off to the German micromobility firm Tier.
Of course, Spin represented just a sliver of Ford’s $150B+ business, so the scooter-share market wasn’t likely to move the needle on Ford’s valuation.
The challenge with investing in scooter manufacturers
Most of the large electric scooter manufacturers are privately-held Chinese firms, which we generally can’t invest directly in. That rules out prominent companies like Beijing-based Ninebot, which owns Segway.
One publicly traded option is Xiaomi, maker of the wildly popular Mi M365.
However, Xiaomi is an enormous corporation of which electric scooters are just one minuscule part. And Xiaomi is only available in the US on the OTC market (OTCMKTS: XIACY), which means more risks around transparency and liquidity. XIACY is based on the company’s Hong Kong listing, but it’s not regulated or sponsored in the same way as the underlying stock.
(Additionally, note that XIACY is different from XIACF. Both trade OTC, but XIACF is only available to institutional investors.)
Another option is Niu Technologies, whose ADRs trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol NIU. (Note: Niu is not to be confused with electric car maker NIO).
Unlike the Xiaomi conglomerate, Niu is a smaller and totally transportation-focused company. They’re mostly known for Vespa-style electric scooters and mopeds, but are also carving out a place in the electric kick scooter market.
Another angle: related products & services
I’m personally bullish on the electric scooter market and believe many companies will succeed. Many will also fail spectacularly.
(2024 update: it seems more have failed than succeeded, at least where rentals are concerned. A lack of good bike infrastructure still keeps people from cycling, and I suspect it keeps more people from choosing e-scooters, too.)
But whether successful or not, all manufacturers need batteries. All rental services need rapid charging. And likewise for entire categories of behind-the-scenes products and services that more visible brands depend on.
Of course, it’s not like electric kick scooter sales are large enough to change the trajectories of entire battery makers or charger manufacturers. Those companies often cater to electric car makers first and foremost, since that’s obviously a more lucrative market.
But a rising tide lifts all ships, so we as individuals might want to find our own way to get in on the action.
And that leads to…
Monetizing your passion: a better alternative?
As with any investment, the electric scooter market requires upfront cash and plenty of risk tolerance. Huge growth is possible—even likely—but far from inevitable. The bottom could fall out of the industry entirely, and there are plenty of company-specific risks, too.
That’s no different from any other growth investment, of course, but it’s important to understand before jumping in.
But if you’re into electric scooters for their own sake, then there are several more entrepreneurial ways to turn your interest and knowledge into money. Most require limited money and risk, but ample time and tenacity.
Sell parts & spares online
You may or may not realize that a great deal of what you buy on Amazon comes from third-party sellers. Sometimes, they’ve simply purchased existing products in bulk to resell. Other times, they’ve actually created something from the ground up and worked with a large manufacturer to offer it under a proprietary brand (known as a “private label”).
That’s as true with electric scooters as with any other product category.
If you see growing demand for simple and readily available parts, then what’s to stop you from following that same business model? Granted, it takes money and involves risk. But also exposes you more directly to market growth than, say, in a gargantuan corporation whose vast portfolio just so happen to include a scooter rental service.
Design the accessories you wish existed
Let’s take that idea a step further.
Is there a better way to carry things on a scooter that you can’t believe nobody has made yet? Does a common part cause headaches that would be a cinch to solve?
If so, then consider filling that gap with a design of your own. 3D printing is a cheap and quick way to test your design, especially if you can access high-end equipment at a local shop or “makerspace.”
You can also work with a bigger manufacturer, but keep in mind that prototypes and inventory can eat up capital with no guarantee of a return. That’s especially true if your design would be the very first of its kind. In that case, low-cost 3D-printed prototypes seem like a better choice.
Offer an uncommon but valuable service
Most of us can handle the basic troubleshooting steps if our electric scooter is running slow, but beyond the basics, things get complicated fast!
Unfortunately, it’s hard to find dedicated e-scooter repair services. It’s also expensive to ship a scooter to the manufacturer.
If you have in-depth knowledge of scooter mechanics and electronics, then consider repairing them—for a decent fee, of course.
Drop-off services could work well in/near large cities, and a mobile service seems even more promising.
You may need tools and will certainly need an inventory of common spares. But unlike something you’ve invented from scratch, the above can usually be resold if you don’t need them.
By the way, consider using your technical know-how to pick up secondhand electric scooters and resell them at a premium. After all, the skills needed to repair others’ scooters are basically the same skills needed to fix and flip them for yourself.
Create ultra-helpful industry & product info
As the electric scooter market grows, so will the questions people need answered. From reviews and buyer’s guides to how-to’s and FAQs, you can turn your firsthand experience into an endless amount of useful information.
Remember: usefulness and relevance brings eyeballs, and eyeballs bring revenue.
If you’re trying to monetize your interest with essentially no upfront costs, then this is easily the best way. Speaking as a blogger myself, be prepared for hard work, slow progress, and stiff competition!
The dismal performance of micromobility.com and Bird demonstrates that handling a popular product (especially as a middleman via rentals) doesn’t guarantee a profitable investment.
If you’re optimistic about the broader reach of e-scooters, and are willing to put in the work, then I believe your own project is the best investment.
Those of you who are entrepreneurially inclined will think of plenty of other ways to build a small business around this niche—and perhaps even a not-so-small one!