HumanForest Raises $15 Million to Grow UK eBike Business

U.K.-based micromobility firm HumanForest has raised $15 million to boost its eBike technology.

The company announced its Series A funding Friday (April 28), saying it would use the money to double the size of its fleet and develop its advertising technology platform and user app.

“Sustainable micromobility is a force for good in cities, but to bring meaningful change it must be affordable and accessible,” Agustin Guilisasti, HumanForest founder and CEO said in a news release. “This funding round has accelerated our expansion, bringing affordable and sustainable mobility to even more Londoners, whilst enhancing our capital efficient approach to growth.”

According to the release, HumanForest has grown on average 50% month-over-month since launching 18 months ago, receiving licenses in nine of London’s boroughs, with more expected to launch shortly.

The company’s funding round — led by Triodos Bank — comes at a time when financing is becoming increasingly scarce for startups.

As noted here last week, experts believe startups will increasingly see their pools of money run dry as the market downturn persists, with some venture-backed firms forced to raise funds at lower valuations, or so-called “down rounds.”

“We haven’t had a compression in values like this in more than 20 years,” Cameron Lester, global co-head of technology media and telecom investment banking at financial services firm Jefferies, said in a Bloomberg News interview. “It’s an absolute bloodbath.”

That report, citing data from Pitchbook,  said more than 400 companies haven’t raised new money since 2021, while 94% of tech unicorns — startups with a value of $1 billion or higher — are unprofitable.

And as PYMNTS reported earlier this month, March’s failure of Silicon Valley Bank — which provided funding and banking services to a number of venture-backed companies — provided a massive shakeup to a sector that was already contending with a funding downturn.

“Just over a year ago, the startup funding landscape was basking in the glow of a sizzling 2021 and hoping to carry the momentum into the new year,” PYMNTS wrote recently. “However, at the beginning of 2023, funding for startups has considerably slowed down, almost to a crawl.”

VC funding dropped 65% year over year in the closing months of 2022, with the amount of new money raised during the period hitting the lowest total for a fourth quarter in nearly a decade.