Ex-Uber Manager Secures Funding to Bring E-Scooter Sharing Service to Singapore

(Photo Credit: Beams)

The pavements of Singapore are about to get a lot more crowded. Electronic scooter sharing service Beam will be looking to make its mark in Singapore in the weeks to come.

According to Bloomberg, Alan Jiang, CEO of Beam and a former country manager of Uber, successfully raised $6.4 million in seed capital from investors such as Sequoia India, Founders Fund, ZhenFund and Glass 5 Global.

If all goes according to plan, the company hopes to start its sharing service in Singapore in the weeks to come. If it finds success in Singapore, the company will expand its platform to the region, starting with Malaysia, Australia and South Korea.

To use Beam, customers simply need to download the app, locate a scooter, and unlock it with their smartphones. The journey starts at S$1 and customers will be charged 15 cents for every minute of usage. Unlike bike-sharing services in the market, no deposit is required to start using Beam’s e-scooters.

“We want to change the fundamental way that people move around Asian cities,” said Jiang, who was also the former Asian Chief of Ofo, in a statement.

Beam’s fleet of e-scooters will be manufactured by Xiaomi-backed company, Segway Ninebot. Beam is also on the lookout for contributors and partners in Singapore.

Currently, e-scooters are seen as a popular mode of transportation, especially among food delivery riders and commuters. Often considered a “nuisance” by both pedestrians and motorists, Singapore certainly had a hard time assimilating e-scooters in society.

Although there are regulations that govern e-scooter usage, there are still plenty of concerned citizens who have yet tp come to grips with them, often voicing their displeasure on social media platforms and online forums.

Besides Beam, there are also other such e-scooter sharing services in Singapore, such as Telepod and PopScoot.

What are your thoughts on this? Share them with us in the comments below.

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