WP Pro Online

This weekend, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo told Le Parisien that Parisians will get to vote whether they want to ban free-floating electric scooters or not. As I explained last week, Dott, Lime and Tier, the three scooter companies currently operating in the city, have operating licenses that are set to expire on March 23rd, 2023. And the fate of those services could have wide implications across the micromobility sector.

“If Parisians want to own their own scooter, there’s no issue. But we have a real issue with free-floating scooters. It’s not climate-friendly. Employees working for these companies are not properly treated,” Mayor of Paris told Le Parisien.

“That’s why I’m going to ask a question to Parisians in a vote that is going to take place on Sunday, April 2nd so that I can understand what they want,” she added.

Each operator currently has a fleet of 5,000 electric scooters. As the vote will occur a few days after the license expiration, it seems like scooter companies will have to remove 15,000 scooters from the streets of Paris before they know if they’re allowed to operate.

The city council is divided on electric scooters. Deputy Mayor David Belliard has been strongly against those services. He’s in charge of transportation and he’s also a green party member. He’s an important ally for Anne Hidalgo, a member of the Socialist Party.

But that doesn’t mean that everyone in the city council wants to ban electric scooters. The Mayor of Paris ultimately gets to decide whether shared scooters should be banned or not. And she has decided that… she’s not going to decide, even though she doesn’t like scooters.

“Should we move forward with free-floating scooters or not? During last year’s public hearing with Parisians, it was a polarizing topic — it’s a battle. My idea is that we should stop. But I will respect the vote of the Parisians even if they disagree with what I want,” Hidalgo told Le Parisien.

So the campaign is on. Dott, Lime and Tier are already lining up their talking points. For instance, according to them, electric scooters are a green transportation option. The reality is a bit more complex as an electric scooter is greener than an Uber ride. But Paris also has a dense metro network.

According to an Ipsos poll paid by Dott, Lime and Tier, 40% of people living in Paris are satisfied with free-floating scooters. 88% of them also think that they are here to stay. Let’s see if that opinion will be reflected in the vote results.

Here’s a joined statement from Dott, Lime and Tier:

“We welcome the decision to consult Parisians regarding the city’s shared e-scooter service, and hope to ensure its continuity over the coming months.

With more than 2 million unique riders having used the shared e-scooter service this year alone – and 700 tons of CO2 emissions avoided in 2021 by riding green in the capital – we are convinced that Parisians are aware of the role that zero emission micromobility options play in helping meet the ambitions set out in the Paris agreements at COP21.

All the employees of the three operators in the Paris area – 800 in total, all on fixed-term and permanent contracts – take note of this reprieve. Lime, Dott and Tier will remain attentive about the terms of this consultation, which seems to state that only inner city Parisian residents will be eligible to vote and those living in city’s suburbs, as well as expats and non-native residents who live in inner city Paris will not be eligible to vote.”

Paris to hold vote on shared scooters by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Kwara, a Kenyan fintech digitizing credit unions (saccos), more than doubled its client base last year, and its eyeing enormous growth in the coming years after raising a $3 million seed extension, and signing an exclusive digital solutions distribution agreement with the Kenya Union of Savings & Credit Cooperatives (Kuscco), the national umbrella body representing saccos.

Following the Kuscco partnership, Kwara gains connections to a pool of over 4,000 saccos for its banking-as-a-service product. As part of the exclusive deal, Kwara is also set to acquire Kuscco’s subsidiary IRNET, a software company and provider for saccos, for an undisclosed amount.

Kwara says the Kuscco deal comes at the right time in its plan to double down on Kenya.

“We think we’ve barely scratched the surface in the Kenyan market. And so, we are just going to be really investing in products and services that deepen our relationship here,” Kwara co-founder and CEO, Cynthia Wandia told TechCrunch.

“The rationale (of the deal) is clear, first it is an opportunity to generate leads and distribute our core product as fast, and to deepen our competitive moat. We’re entering an exclusive partnership, which also means no other tech company will be able to market with Kuscco. They are stacking their bets on us but we have been able to prove that we can do it as we continue to grow,” said Wandia, who co-founded the fintech with David Hwan in 2019.

The seed extension round had the participation of existing investors DOB Equity, Globivest and Willard Ahdritz, the founder of Kobalt Music. New backers One Day Yes, Base Capital as well as fintech executives including Mikko Salovaara, the CFO of Revolut, also joined the round. The new funding brings the total seed amount raised by the startup to $7 million. Initial round saw participation of several investors including Breega, SoftBank Vision Fund Emerge, Finca Ventures, New General Market Partners.

Kwara, which also has a presence in South Africa and the Philippines, has grown its clientele base to 120 from 50 at the end of 2021, maintaining a 100% customer retention — a proof of the value it delivers to its clients. The automated onboarding process, the startup says, has ensured customer success and growth.

Kwara’s product upgrades the back-office operations of credit unions helping them to shift away from tedious paper-based processes and physical branches, opening up new avenues for them to sign up new members and create novel products.

The company also has a next-generation neobank app that gives members of partner credit unions access to additional services such as instant loans and third-party services such as insurance. It said the user base of the neobank app, which also allows users to deposit money directly into their sacco accounts, and track their finances and payments, has grown 35-fold since launch last year.

The fintech is planning on adding more features to cater to the saccos, and additional products for the neobank app users too.

“We continue to ship more or less enterprise grade features for the large saccos that are well capitalized, the ones who are at the same size and level as some of the banks. There are specific features they need and specific ways they need to be taken care of so we will continue investing in that,” said Wandia adding that Kwara is also investing on improving the neo-banking experience. They are set to add more features that will help members build “a personalized view of their own goals and really start working towards achieving them.” They will also sign more third party partnerships to add more value to the app users.

“We believe that every time a sacco member leaves their sacco to get another service just because the sacco doesn’t provide it is a missed opportunity for that member to actually profit from the returns of that product. all income earned on those products actually flows back to the members as dividends,” she added.

Credit unions are formed by people with a common interest or members of an industry, like farmers or teachers, who buy shares in the institution, save money and take loans. They are popular especially in developing regions due to their low-interest-rate loans and ease in accessing credit when compared to conventional banks. In Kenya only 175 saccos are licensed, as a vast majority remain unregulated.

Kenyan fintech Kwara raises $3M seed extension, signs deal to reach over 4,000 credit unions by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

Eighteen months after its app was suspended in China, ride hailing giant Didi made a comeback on Monday. The move came as China showed signs of easing up its sweeping regulatory clampdown on the internet sector over the past three years.

In July 2021, Chinese authorities ordered the country’s app stores to remove Didi, citing reasons that the platform was “illegally collecting user data.” Earlier that same month, Didi went public in New York. It was a short-lived celebration for the firm, which raised a hefty $4 billion from the first-time sale, as the event quickly turned out to be the root of its clash with Beijing.

Didi, according to multiple reports and an investor memo seen by TechCrunch at the time, failed to assure the government that its cross-border data practices were secure before going public in the U.S., where the data of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens could allegedly be subject to scrutiny. The misstep led to a year-and-a-half-long security investigation by China’s top cyberspace watchdog.

It seems like Didi’s period of repentance and rectification is over, as the company posted on Weibo Monday afternoon:

“Our company has taken serious steps to cooperate with the country’s cybersecurity review, deal with the security issues found in the probe, and implement comprehensive rectifications.”

With approval from the Cybersecurity Review Office, a relatively new organ designated to address data security concerns posed by internet firms, Didi was allowed to resume new user registration for Didi Chuxing, its main ride hailing platform, effective immediately.

Aside from a data revamp, Didi was also reportedly ordered to pay a $1 billion fine for breaching rules. It finished delisting from the U.S. in May last year and has been working to relist on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, an increasingly preferable choice for Chinese tech firms that are navigating rising U.S.-China tensions.

Prior to the relaunch of user registration, Didi users were still able to use the app if they already had it on their phones. But the app was besieged by hungry rivals. Alibaba-owned mapping service AutoNavi, for example, has been gaining ground as an aggregator of third-party ride hailing services, including Didi.

The era of unfettered growth in the ride hailing space is also long gone. China has been tightening regulatory oversight on the novel business in recent years, putting it more in line with the traditional state-owned taxi industry.

Following the regulatory overhaul, Didi will surely be much more cautious about the government’s red line.

“Going forward, the company will apply effective methods to ensure the security of the platform’s infrastructure and big data in order to safeguard national cybersecurity,” it said in the Weibo post.

Didi gets China approval to relaunch after 18-month security probe by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch