Zipp Mobility founder Charlie Gleeson. Image: Zipp Mobility
Investment from Barry Maloney and Enterprise Ireland means the company has now raised more than €2m in total.
Irish e-scooter start-up Zipp Mobility has closed a €1.3m funding round with backing from Balderton Capital founder Barry Maloney and Enterprise Ireland.
The round also featured another unnamed angel investor and €562,000 raised through a campaign on the Spark Crowdfunding platform. Maloney, as well as a prominent VC founder and angel investor, currently serves as chair of Workhuman, the Irish unicorn software firm.
Zipp Mobility was founded in 2019 by Charlie Gleeson and is based out of the NovaUCD entrepreneurship centre at University College Dublin. This round brings Zipp’s total funding raised to date to more than €2m.
The company operates its e-scooter sharing services across eight cities in the UK and Poland, and plans to begin operating in Ireland as soon as regulations allow.
It said is in discussion with “a number of local authorities” in Ireland ahead of the introduction of e-scooter legislation and will use the newly raised capital to “significantly increase” the number of e-scooters it operates over the next few months.
As well as its planned Irish launch, Zipp wants to expand its current operations and launch in more European countries. It also plans to expand its staff from 25 to 35 by the end of this year.
Gleeson, CEO of Zipp Mobility, commented: “We have experienced great momentum in the last 12 months, showcasing our service to hundreds of thousands of people across the UK and mainland Europe. We are now excited to grow our European position, following our latest funding round, by continuing to offer sustainable transport alternatives to millions of people across the continent.
“Over the last two years we have been in discussions with Irish local authorities, and we have been sharing our international experience with them to ensure that scooter-sharing schemes are rolled out safely and responsibly once e-scooters are legalised in Ireland.”
Maloney added that he was delighted to invest in Zipp Mobility. “Charlie epitomises the kind of entrepreneur I am delighted to be supportive of,” he said.
This latest funding round follows a €300,000 raise in June 2020 and €500,000 in September 2020, which included investment from former Irish rugby player Brian O’Driscoll. In January, Zipp announced it was partnering with Irish start-up Luna to trial ‘smart scooters’ equipped with computer vision and artificial intelligence.
