Top image: A JUMP e-scooter (courtesy image)
They're in Atlanta, Austin and Chicago — and now, e-scooters want to make their home in Tampa.
Fourteen companies submitted applications on Feb. 15 to launch their fleets in city limits, according to documents from the City of Tampa's Purchasing Department.
Below, we have a description of each company that's looking to come to Tampa.
- Bird Rides Inc. is one of the most well-known e-scooter companies based in Santa Monica, Calif. Their scooters are in more than 100 cities across the nation. The company previously told Tampa Bay Inno at Synapse Summit they would be submitting a bid to come to the city.
- Lime, which is known for its recent partnership with Uber, is based in San Francisco and also offers a dockless bicycle for rent. The company has launched in about 150 cities, which are spread across the U.S. and internationally.
- JUMP, the Uber-owned New York City based company, offers e-scooters and e-bicycles across 15 cities in the U.S. and Berlin. The e-scooter portion of JUMP is still developing, being offered in only nine of the cities.
- Gotcha Mobility LLC, which has a major focus on offering its services in college campuses, is based in 37 cities. The Sherman Oaks, Calif. based group offers bike share, e-scooter share and ride shares under one platform.
- Razor USA LLC, is one of the more adventure-driven companies, offering hoverboards, kick scooters, electric skateboards and "skates," which are wheels that can be directly strapped on to your sneakers. It's based in Cerritos, Calif.
- Spin has a focus on working with local governments to deploy its e-scooters, as well as on college campuses. Ford Motor Company acquired Spin in November 2018.
- CycleHop LLC, already offers a bike sharing program through Tampa-St. Pete with "Coast" bicycles. The company offers electric bikes as well as smart bikes, the latter which has a permanent locking system onto the bicycle.
- Bolt Mobility Corp., which rebranded as Etergo, has a focus on e-scooters that are more like mopeds. Based in the Netherlands, Etergo sells their e-scooters directly to customers versus have a city-partnership program.
- Roll Labs Inc. is one of the newer companies looking to make a splash in Tampa. According to their website, the New York City-based company was founded in 2018 and has 2-10 employees.
- Glyde Scooters is a twist on the typical e-scooter company: it's based in Detroit and launched in October 2018 under a 24-year-old CEO. Glyde offers hoverboards, which the company says are similar to "smart segways."
- CLEVR Mobility Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company focused on MaaS, or Mobility as a Service. It offers e-bikes and e-scooters that have batteries which can be swapped out.
- VeoRide Inc. offers a slew of options including e-bikes, pedal bikes, fat tire bikes and e-scooters. The company has offices in Chicago and West Lafayette, Ind., with about 20 dockless stations across the U.S.
- Slidr LLC, has a "Slidr" ride sharing vehicle and also has "Scootr," or its version of an e-scooter. The company has a location in nearby Naples, as well as one in Charleston and one in Columbia, S.C.
- Helbiz Inc, which is broken down into "HelbizAir" "HelbizCar" and "HelbizGo," offers drone taxis, private cars for rent and e-scooters, respectively. While the company has multiple locations in Europe and worldwide, Tampa would be its first U.S. location.
Now that the application window is closed, the timeline will be moving quickly to get e-scooters to the area. The list is set to be narrowed down to three finalists at a March 21 city council meeting, and officials are hopeful the one-year pilot project will be underway beginning April 1, according to an interview done with the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
