UAE e-scooter start-up backed by Israeli venture capitalist

A new UAE-based micro-mobility organization has landed $3.8 million in seed funding from an Israeli venture capitalist.

Fenix, founded by ex - directors of e-scooter organization Circ Jaideep Dhanoa and IQ Sayed, will quickly begin operations found in Abu Dhabi. It really is being supported by Maniv Mobility in what's the first venture expenditure into a UAE firm by an Israel-centered VC.

“As a result of the new friendship which has emerged since normalisation between your UAE and Israel, we were grateful to meet up the staff at Maniv Mobility and today benefit from working with many of the most talented and experienced global investors and tech entrepreneurs in the mobility space," Mr Dhanoa said. "We hope this investment is just the start of a cross-pollination of skill, capital and technology between the nations that may only end up being an accelerant in the production of a true Middle Eastern tech ecosystem.”

Mr Dhanoa and Mr Sayed first of all met while performing at Dubai-based Careem, where Mr Sayed worked in engineering and Mr Dhanoa was portion of its strategy staff. Mr Dhanoa subsequently proved helpful at Singapore-based mobility organization Pick up and Mr Sayed at Lyft's Autonomous Driving group in Munich, however the match reunited as co-founders at Circ - a Berlin-based e-scooter retain the services of firm that also operated in the UAE. Circ was obtained by US-centered competitor Bird in January.

The shared micro-mobility market - offering e-scooters and electric bikes for hire - keeps growing rapidly and is expected to be worth between $300 billion and $500bn across the US, Europe and China by 2030, regarding to CBInsights. Start-ups in the sector have attracted about $5.3bn in funding since 2015, the US-based research firm said in a recently available report.

Bird's Circ, Careem and Lime have already been selling e-scooters for hire found in Abu Dhabi since this past year. Dubai's Roads and Transfer Authority banned the employ the service of of electric power scooters in March this past year while it investigated the way the rental market could be safely regulated but permitted trials in five areas previous month.

Fenix said it could have the largest fleet of e-scooters that contain been "purpose-built for continuous shared employ", but did not give an precise number. Scooters expense Dh1 per kilometre to trip, after a Dh3 'unlocking' fee.

After its Abu Dhabi release, the company said it'll roll out to various other emirates and Gulf countries "in the coming months".

"We happen to be delighted to be the first Israeli VC to invest in a UAE-based tech company. Maniv Mobility sees huge potential in the GCC location as a new market for micro-mobility and we were amazingly impressed by the workforce at Fenix,” Michael Granoff, founder and managing spouse of Maniv Flexibility, said.

Fenix said micro-mobility is one of the safest ways of shared transport during the Covid-19 pandemic while users remain socially distanced and they decrease the load on crowded consumer transport systems. The business's scooters are installed with hand sanitisation packs and it stated it will sanitise scooters while they happen to be staying recharged or redeployed to other areas of a city.

“The birth of Fenix is conjoined with the rebirth of our metropolitan areas, our societies, and our economies as we changeover out of Covid-19 lockdowns. We consider micro-mobility has an essential role to play in navigating an uncertain show an improved tomorrow," Mr Sayed explained.