Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar back e-bike startup Zoomo in $80 million raise

Aussie e-bike subscription startup Zoomo has raised $80 million in equity and debt funding, with Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar both backing the business.

The round was led by Grok Ventures, the venture fund run by Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie Cannon-Brookes.

Skip Capital, the investment fund of Farquhar, headed up by his wife Kim Jackson, also contributed, alongside global clean-tech investor ArcTern ventures, and existing backers AirTree Ventures, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Contrarian Ventures and Maniv Mobility.

Founded in 2017 as Bolt Bikes, Zoomo rebranded in August last year when it raised its $16 million Series A round.

The business offers e-bikes on subscription, largely for gig economy workers and last-mile couriers, including on-demand servicing.

Since the Series A round, the business has matured, co-founder Mina Nada tells SmartCompany.

It is now used not only by individual delivery riders, but by enterprises subscribing to run a whole fleet of Zoomo bikes.

The startup has bikes on the ground in Australia, the US and the UK, and has also recently launched in Spain, France and Germany.

Revenues are growing at a rate of 400%, year-on-year, Nada says, and they’re not showing any signs of slowing.

Inspiring investors

The debt funding element of this round will allow Zoomo to scale up its operations significantly.

This is a capital-intensive business, Nada explains.

“It doesn’t make sense to fund that with equity.”

Currently he estimates the business will have about 10,000 bikes out in the field by the end of the year. The debt funding will mean that number will increase into the multiple tens-of-thousands much more quickly.

It also frees up the equity for investment into the product stack, including both the hardware and software technology, in order to better meet the demands of customers.

But this raise wasn’t all about the cash. Getting both of Atlassian’s co-founders, plus a ream of other high-profile investors, on board was a big win.

“We’re really proud to have Aussie backers backing an Australian-founded business,” Nada says.

“They’re successful and global, which is what we aspire to be.”

Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar are also very ambitious, he notes, and they encourage Nada and the team to be too.

Perhaps most importantly, they’re aligned with the climate impact values of the business.

No trade off between good business and impact

There are macro trends at play that Zoomo has been in a good position to get ahead of.

Throughout the pandemic we’ve seen increasing use of on-demand delivery services, not only for food delivery but for groceries and other goods too.

There’s an “increasingly clear opportunity of scale here”, Nada says.

We’re also seeing an continuing focus on environmental impact and sustainability. Customers are demanding eco-friendly services, and businesses are looking for ways to deliver that.

That means more dollars are being invested in climate-conscious startups too.

Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes, for example, have pledged $1.5 billion of their own wealth to tackle climate change through both investment and philanthropy.

“Investors are increasingly realising that you can marry good economics and good businesses with being good for the environment,” Nada says.