Electric scooter startup Grin merges with Brazil-based Yellow

NelsonG · January 30, 2019

Consolidation in the micromobility space has arrived — in Brazil, at least. A few months after Y Combinator-backed Grin merged its electric scooter business with Brazil-based Ride, it’s now merging with Yellow, the bike-share startup based in Brazil that has also expressed its ambitions to get into electric scooters.

If Yellow sounds familiar to you, it may be because, in September, the company raised $63 million in a funding round led by GGV Capital. That was the largest Series A round for a Latin American startup. A month later, Grin raised a $45.7 million Series A round.

As part of the merger, Grin and Yellow are rebranding as Grow Mobility. Initially, however, both apps will maintain their apps and brands. Grow Mobility operates more than 135,000 micromobility vehicles across six countries and plans to more than double its fleet in the next few months across Latin America.

“The demand for these everyday services across Latin America is huge and, by combining strengths and resources, we will be able to move quickly to serve more users,” Grin co-founder and Grow CEO Sergio Romo said in a press release. “We look forward to building on Grin and Yellow’s strong relationships with local officials and other stakeholders who are eager to partner with us in creating long-lasting value for our region.”

Over in the U.S., there are countless electric scooter startups. As my colleague Kate Clark said in last month, it’s only a matter of time before we see some consolidation.