The Berlin company Circ was purchased by Bird, an American e-scooter industry pioneer. (picture alliance/Wolfram Steinberg)
Bird, the American industry pioneer, is carrying out a takeover in order to gain a faster foothold in Europe. Bird is buying the Berlin company Circe-scooter, which is currently active in 43 cities in 12 countries. The Americans did not name a price when they announced the acquisition on Monday.
There are also smaller e-scooter providers on the German and European market. In the industry itself, a concentration has been expected for some time. Last summer, when they launched in Germany, Circ’s management was still convinced that they would be able to hold their own against their big US rivals such as Bird and Lime.
One of the founders of Circ is the serial entrepreneur Lukasz Gadowski, who among other things had set up the food delivery company Lieferheld. The company was launched under the name Flash and raised tens of millions of euros from investors. According to media reports, Bird was valued at 2.5 billion dollars in the latest round of financing.
Both companies develop their own electric scooters, which are intended to be more robust and durable. One of the problems the industry faced in the early days was the short life span of the vehicles, which drove up costs.
The "Financial Times" had previously reported on the takeover. It cited industry insiders who claimed that Bird wanted to catch up with its competitor Lime in Europe, where it had got off to a better start.
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