Electric scooter sales are falling with several branded scooter manufacturers at the recent Hong Kong Fair, failing to generate new distribution deals for the Australian market.
Retailers have also moved to rationalise the brands they sell due in part to several states failing to legalise the use of electric scooters.
In the electric bike market, E-bike start-up Zoomo, has moved to lay off staff due in part to the collapse of food home delivery businesses such Milkrun.
The business has slashed 27 staff in their latest round of job cuts.
“Zoomo has made the difficult decision to reduce its overall head count by 8 per cent. The restructure will accelerate our path to company-wide profitability in 2024,” the company said in a statement.
“It primarily affects employees in our corporate head office, as we bring central overheads in line with regional profit.”
According to the SMH, Zoomo was founded in 2017 by former Deliveroo executives Mina Nada and Michael Johnson, who set the company up as a provider of electric bikes for last-mile delivery businesses. The company now operates in about 16 cities across Australia, North America and Europe.
The business is facing competition from cheap e-bikes directly imported from manufacturers in Asia, which are popular among cost-conscious gig economy workers.
The company has raised a total of $US116 million (A$174.8 million), which includes $US15.9 million ($24 million) from existing investors in a raising earlier this year led by Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon Brookes’ Grok Ventures and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
Zoomo’s investors include Skip Capital, founded by Kim Jackson and husband Scott Farquhar, and Airtree Ventures, which also invested in Milkrun.
