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Investment firms linked to Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have charged up Sydney-based Zoomo, a rapidly-growing e-bike provider servicing the biggest global names in food delivery from Just Eat to Gorillas to Deliveroo to Amazon Wholefoods.
Less than six months after raising $16 million in a Series A that has accelerated operations growth in Australia, the US, the UK and continental Europe, Zoomo has been given a fresh injection of funds thanks to a US$60 million (AUD$82 million) Series B raise.
The funding round was led by Grok Ventures, the investment office of Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie. As a new investor Grok was joined by Farquhar's Skip Capital, in addition to clean-tech investor ArcTern Ventures.
The Series B round was heavily oversubscribed and also saw strong follow-on support from existing investors AirTree Ventures, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Contrarian Ventures and Maniv Mobility.
In addition to these direct investments, Zoomo has also secured a ground-breaking asset-backed debt facility from OneVentures and Viola Credit, which will go towards providing e-bikes to partners, removing the need for upfront, lump-sum payments and allowing them to pay a monthly subscription fee instead.
Founded in 2017 by Michael Johnson and former Deliveroo exec Mina Nada, who have both been selected as finalists in the upcoming Sydney Young Entrepreneur Awards, Zoomo allows delivery companies to access e-bikes with a fleet management solution involving software, a servicing team and financing options.
"We’ve found the product-market fit for the B2C (business to consumer) business focused on gig workers where we have individual weekly subscription contracts, and the explosion is really coming from the enterprise space where it’s not just a contract with an individual but with an enterprise where they want hundreds if not thousands of bikes at once," Johnson told Business News Australia.
The entrepreneur explained how the company's long list of partners - also including the likes of Uber Eats, Doordash, Domino's, Zapp, Dija and more - have raised billions of dollars over the last two years.
"A lot of that money is going to vehicles or fleets to deliver groceries within 10 minutes, so we’re benefiting from not just that level of funding, but the pace at which these guys want to grow," Johnson said.
Zoomo recently further expanded its US operations into Chicago, and has also just launched in Spain, Germany and France with plans to explore more markets.
"We’ll be looking at a lot of markets over the next 12 to 18 months. I think the most obvious markets are those developed markets where we have existing relationships with the enterprise customers that play in those markets," he said.
"In any city we expand to, there’s this nice little kicker which is our B2C business which is focused on gig workers, and there’s a huge amount of synergy between our two businesses.
"If we have a B2B operation, we have a warehouse with mechanics and vans that can distribute bikes, so it’s really easy for us to tack on a consumer retail store that is very consumer-facing, but we can still shuffle bikes to and from there to make sure they’ve got adequate supply."
Co-founder and CEO Mina Nada highlighted Zoomo was enabling the next wave of on-demand delivery whilst reducing city congestion, and the efficiency afforded by light and agile vehicles meant the industry could fundamentally reimagine how mobility looks in major cities.
"As countries all around the world grapple with achieving net-zero carbon emissions, they are realising that electrifying cars is only part of the answer," Nada said.
"We need more efficient and sustainable form factors - light EVs. Delivery companies are re-evaluating their fleet composition and are embracing the power of the pedal to marry cost efficiencies with environmental sustainability."
He said today's funding round underscored the tremendous potential of Zoomo e-bikes for delivery use.
"Zoomo is excited to bring on some world leading investors like Grok, ArcTern and Skip Capital to support our incredible growth and share in our vision to make e-bikes the default way of moving things around our cities," he said.
"If we want to decarbonise our world, transportation needs to change. Zoomo is an incredible Aussie start-up taking this on. They're greening delivery and transforming logistics on a global scale," added Mike Cannon-Brookes of Grok Ventures.
"We are delighted to deepen our partnership with Zoomo on this important mission of reducing carbon footprint globally and are keen to support their global fleet expansion as they enter their next phase of growth," added Viola Credit general partner Ido Vigdor.
The additional funding looks set to bolster a service offering that has already made Zoom an integral part of the delivery fabric for its customers, such as Gopuff in the UK.
"Our Zoomo e-bike fleet is critical to enabling our rapid grocery delivery promise. Not only have we found Zoomo the most advanced partner for enabling our vehicle scale-up, but the bikes are the favourites amongst our couriers as well," said Gopuff general manager UK Alberto Menolascina.
Zane Zappacosta, managing director of one of the largest Domino's Franchisees in Australia, says the company's delivery service is fuelled by innovation, technology and a commitment to sustainability.
"By adopting Zoomo e-bikes we are committing to a more sustainable delivery fleet, one that reduces our environmental footprint while helping to drive internal efficiencies like lowering service costs and broadening our hiring pool," Zappacosta said.
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