Singapore's Obike raises $45m Series B

Obike said in a press release that its investors include an unnamed "leading global transportation platform." Grishin Robotics, a VC firm founded by Russian businessman Dmitry Grishin, also participated, in conjunction with several family offices in Southeast Asia.

Since its launch in Singapore in January, Obike claims to have grown its operations to over 10 countries including Australia, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Taiwan, Thailand, and the UK. The company plans to use the latest funding for international expansion.

"Obike was founded with the vision of transforming how people in urban Singapore travel using technology. Users can now travel conveniently—especially for first- and last-mile commuting—via bicycles located all over the island," said Edward Chen, Obike's co-founder. "We hope to empower commuters globally with flexibility and convenience while helping them reduce their carbon footprint at the same time."

Obike's service is similar to that of China-based counterparts Ofo and Mobike. Users can locate Obike's smart bikes and unlock them by scanning QR codes via its mobile app. 

Both Ofo and Mobike have raised several rounds of PE funding. Ofo's most recent $700 million Series E round was closed in July – less than a month after Tencent Holdings led a Series E round of $600 million for Mobike. Both companies also hope to expand overseas. Mobike currently has a presence in 100 cities, most of them in China. It expanded to Singapore at the end of last year and recently launched a pilot service in the UK, starting in the cities of Manchester and Salford. Ofo aims to deploy 20 million bikes and grow its service to reach 200 cities in 20 countries by the end of this year.

Smaller players include Gobee Bike, a Hong Kong start-up backed by Alibaba Group's Entrepreneur Fund, which also plans to enter North America, Europe and other parts of Asia once it has proved the concept in Hong Kong.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Technology
• Singapore
• TMT
• Venture