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Bird Rides Inc. made official Wednesday what dot.LA first reported Sunday night: The Santa Monica unicorn that started the e-scooter craze in 2017 will go public via SPAC at a $2.3 billion valuation.
The company also provided more details about its finances as well as potential risks to its business model, one of which is a spate of serious injuries and even deaths involving the company's e-scooters – which frequently have to navigate busy streets and sidewalks.
For the first time, Bird revealed it has been involved in more than a hundred lawsuits involving "brain injuries, internal injuries, and death," many of which are still pending.
Bird added that it has seen "significant" increase in litigation costs the past two years. It said if that continues the company may have trouble getting insurance.
Some law firms have already set up pages dedicated to e-scooter injuries, helping injured users navigate Bird's user agreement.
The $2.3 billion valuation Bird is going public at is well below the $2.85 billion it fetched in the beginning of 2020, something founder and CEO Travis VanderZanden shrugged off in a rare interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
He said he views going public as merely a financing event and he is focused on returns many years from now.
"We didn't want to be greedy on valuation," VanderZanden said. "We wanted to figure out what price made sense for getting long term investors into the stock."
VanderZanden also dismissed concerns about an unraveling SPAC market while acknowledging "the SPAC market has had its ups and downs."
Speaking about last year, he said "It felt like things were a little frothy where you had some science projects." But he said this year is different.
"I think we've really entered SPAC 3.0 where you're going to see companies with real business models and real revenue starting to SPAC," VanderZanden said. "We're excited to be part of this new wave of SPAC 3.0."
VanderZanden said he first started talking to Switchback II, the SPAC taking Bird public, at the beginning of this year. He found their visions and missions aligned, despite the fact that Switchback focuses on clean energy.
VanderZanden was criticized for selling tens of millions worth of shares in the company in 2018, but he said Wednesday he felt confident enough to buy more shares last year and that no Bird employees are getting cashed out in the SPAC.
The CEO put his 10,000 foot Bel Air mansion on the market in April for $25 million, just six months after purchasing it for $21.7 million from The Daily Show's Trevor Noah.- Bird Reportedly Explores Going Public via SPAC - dot.LA ›
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Continuing its recent acquisition strategy, Santa Monica-based Bird announced Monday it has acquired Berlin based Circ, the leading shared e-scooter company in Europe and the Middle East. With the deal, Bird will add 300 employees to its operations.
"I founded Bird nearly three years ago because we need to change the status quo and take a transformative stance to combat the traffic and pollution that affect our cities and endanger people globally," Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird said in a statement. "To further advance our mission, we're excited to acquire Circ which is the clear European leader. We like their laser focus."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, which comes on the heels of last year's purchase of west coast rival Scoot for a reported $25 million.
The scooter business has scaled up quickly, with Circ only founded in 2018 and Bird in 2017. Circ boasts operations spanning 43 cities in 12 countries. In November, TechCrunch reported the company laid off employees, which the founder attributed to "operational learnings." (Bird also went through layoffs last spring.)
Bird also announced Monday that it has raised an additional $75 million in capital after increasing its Series D round to $350 million. The round was led by CDPQ and Sequoia Capital.
It is a good sign for a company that has reportedly been burning through cash.
In July, The Information reported that in the first quarter of last year -- during the slow winter months -- the electric scooter operator lost nearly $100 million while revenue dipped to about $15 million. Sources said Bird was down to just $100 million in cash after raising more than $700 million a year and a half before.
Bird is currently valued at $2.7 billion, according to Pitchbook data, and the company has been trying to sell investors on what it describes as a more prudent business model.
"Investors today are looking for financially disciplined companies with a clear path to profitability," said VanderZander. "More than 12 months ago we shifted our focus from growth to profitability which put us in a position to deliver the strongest unit economics and longest-lasting custom-designed vehicles of any micro-mobility company today."
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