We’ve gone from Segways to Hoverboards to Boosted boards and now there’s Bird. The US-based Uber-for-electric-scooters company is speeding its way to SPAC-land and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
The company, which has operations in more than 200 cities in Europe, the Middle East, and the US, is going public through a merger with the Switchback II SPAC at a valuation of $2.3b. Bird aims to receive net proceeds of up to $428m through the merger.
In 2020, the company went through Covid-induced trouble as its sharing services were halted due to lockdowns. Revenues dropped by 37% and the company lost 30% of workers. Bird’s turned around since then, with positive gross profit margins in Q2 2021 and an almost six-fold increase in revenues. With a new product, the e-bike, launched in August and a revamped operating model, the company is projecting revenues of $188m for 2021.
Why it matters
Due to the company’s shaky history of poor revenues and high costs, investors were initially shaky and led to shares for the Switchback II SPAC dropping by 7.2% over the past five days. Since news of the SPAC being approved, however, it’s been up by 13.4%.
