A new scooter company on Seedrs whizzes to the finish line with €3m

Bolt Mobility has closed its fundraising campaign today (October 18) on Seedrs, which was over-subscribed by 200 per cent, and has raised around £2.6m.

The startup is aiming to take scooters off the road that are harmful to the environment, for good. The campaign has attracted over 2,000 investors, becoming Seedrs’ most popular non-UK campaign to date.

The proceeds from the fundraise will be primarily used to get Bolt’s internet-enabled electric scooter, ‘AppScooter’, ready to market in 2018.

Bart Jacobsz Rosier, CEO and co-founder at Bolt, said: “It’s exciting to see so much support from the UK market. The proceeds from our latest fundraise will enable us to push the AppScooter into production next year.

“We aim to have delivered more than a quarter million scooters to customers by 2020. We are truly excited to be at the forefront of a lucrative market worth over £30bn a year.”

The global sales for motorcycles and scooters reached 134m units in 2016, with industry revenues reaching $90bn (around £70bn). Yet according to the University of Cambridge, scooters are far more polluting than a small delivery van and are responsible for 30 per cent of worldwide traffic emissions.

A number of European countries have put specific policies in place to deal with the environmental impact of scooters.

By contrast, it appears that the UK is lagging behind as the British government recently announced the decision to just ban the sales of diesel and petrol cars by 2040.