The company, which provides electric bike and moped memberships to customers and businesses, stated in a press release on Thursday (Feb. 16) that the cash will be used to expand in the five cities where it operates: Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Vienna.
Dance features a business-to-business (B2B) service in addition to its B2C offering, which allows organisations such as Google and Urban Sports Club to offer Dance’s bikes and mopeds as an employee benefit.
“At the beginning of the year, Dance announced a collaboration with the startup IoT Venture, a pioneer in the connected bike market,” according to the announcement. “Their sophisticated technology allows for the location and recovery of bikes and makes Dance’s eBikes even more resistant to theft.”
Micromobility goods have a variety of applications. Consumers may live too far away to walk to a store yet are too close to drive. Commuters may be looking for a solution to bridge the gap between where public transportation leaves them off and their workplace or school.
“Of course, visitors utilise it, and as the service has gotten more widespread and reliable, we’re seeing it become a part of people’s everyday commute,” Jonathan Hannestad, chief operating officer of micromobility business Helbiz, told PYMNTS earlier this month.
He emphasised that towns with high-quality public transportation want to assist travellers in covering the last mile, whereas cities without public transportation want to assist people in getting around.
“Getting rid of our car dependency is a huge deal for us,” Hannestad added. “Between 25% and 30% of all car trips in the United States and Europe are less than one mile, and changing only a fraction of this will greatly improve congestion, air quality, and life in all of these cities — while also making it easier to get from point A to point B.”
Micromobility firms have sprung up across European cities in recent years, motivated by a need for an alternative to enclosed areas such as bus and metro networks during the pandemic.
Among these are Estonian micromobility businesses Ampler and Ku Mobility, who announced a merger this week. The firms negotiated an investment and share-swap arrangement, making Ku Ampler’s new majority stakeholder.
“Ampler and Ku Mobility Group have been pursuing a similar purpose and have previously collaborated, so taking the next step made a lot of sense,” said Ardo Kaurit, CEO and co-founder of Ampler. “‘If you want to go far, go together,’ they say.”
The acquisition strengthens Ku’s micromobility portfolio, which currently includes Tuul, an electric scooter rental service, ike, an electric scooter manufacturer, and Comodule, which provides software and internet of things (IoT) solutions for light electric vehicles.
The Dance One bikes have a range of 34 miles (55 kilometres) and a top speed of 15 mph (25 kph). The bicycles are outfitted with integrated lighting, a smartphone mount, hydraulic disc brakes, and a carbon belt drive.
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