Mobility as a service is a relatively new concept to consumers and covers companies offering on-demand access to passenger and personal vehicles, as well as companies integrating multiple modes of travel into one service.
Investment in this sector of travel has peaked and troughed from 2015 to 2019, with shared micro travel platforms having gained the most momentum, particularly in Europe during the pandemic.
A couple of recent examples have all raised in 2020 up to $180million
as consumers look at independent ways for travel during the pandemic,
and as cities, transport infrastructure slowed down.
This covers companies offering on-demand access to passenger and personal vehicles, as well as companies integrating multiple modes of travel into one service.
The levels of investment from 2015, $13billion peaked at $26billion in 2017, and have dropped back in 2020 to around $6billion (equal to 2016).
Shared micro travel platforms have gained the most momentum, particularly in Europe.
A couple of recent examples have all raised in 2020 up to $180million as consumers look at independent ways for travel during the pandemic, and as cities, transport infrastructure slowed down. A couple of recently active examples we found would be:
Road trips or staycation are a trend for the coming years – and some
platforms are trading off this consumer insight of staying in their own
regions. Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace for people to
book cars from a community of local hosts across the US, Canada, the UK,
and Germany.
In the US, the Recreational Vehicle, or motorhome, has spawned its own AirBnB, in the form of RV Share, which, unsurprisingly, is a peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace. These guys raised $100m from private equity at the end of 2020.
Lastly, something we haven’t seen yet in Europe at least but is gaining momentum in SE Asia is the super app. That’s right – all in one place…Indonesia-based Gojek offers a variety of complete services starting from transportation, logistics, payment, food delivery, and other on-demand services, by connecting users to driver-partners.
Singapore-based Grab is on-demand transportation and mobile payments platform, offering private car, motorbike, taxi, and carpooling services in Southeast Asia.
Without a doubt, there is a market opportunity for some one-stop-shop subscription app for access to mobility for the UK and European markets. A 2 click access and you have a travel option – be it a car club or an e-bike to a train journey – and in particular for the Gen Z subscription generation – who consume food, music, and content on this basis.
Watch this space!
