French self-service scooter and bicycle company Pony announces a €6 million round of financing from Épopée Gestion and its historic investors Demeter Investment Managers and Aquiti Gestion. Following a 10-fold increase in sales between 2019 and 2022, this new round of financing is aimed at supporting the company’s expansion in French and Belgian cities, and consolidating its research and development efforts.
Very strong acceleration over the past two years, driven by a value proposition that appeals to French cities
Founded in 2018 by Paul-Adrien Cormerais and Clara Vaisse, pony has seen a very strong acceleration over the past two years. After adding electric scooters and two-seater electric-assist bicycles to its fleets in 2019 and 2020, the company has opened 13 new cities in the last two years. Bourges, Lorient, Liège and Poitiers have recently been equipped with scooters and pony bikes, after the company won various calls for projects launched by these cities. While pony scooters have yet to find their niche in Paris, the model built by pony in Anjou is convincing.
Respect for public space, special relationships with towns and cities, integration into the local community: this patiently-built know-how has enabled the company to establish itself as the French champion of shared mobility, with the largest number of towns and cities in operation. Indeed, with 15 cities and over 500,000 unique users, the company has multiplied its sales by 10 since 2019.
The ambition to equip all French towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants
In order to support the company’s strong growth, a new investor, Épopée Gestion, joins the historic shareholders Demeter Partners and Aquiti Gestion, in raising €6 million. The purpose of this capital increase is to support the company in its development, consolidate its research and development work, notably on the design of its own electric bicycle, and implement a strategy to repatriate its production to Europe. To this end, 15 new employees will be recruited over the coming months.
“Over the past 24 months, we have proven the usefulness and popularity of our services in a wide variety of cities: large metropolises such as Brussels and Angers, towns on a human scale such as Bourges, and towns in the outer suburbs such as Evry-Courcouronnes. Everywhere, our services have met with great success, making life easier for residents who don’t own a car. With a carbon footprint ten times lower than a car (29g of CO2 emitted per kilometer), each trip with a bike or a pony scooter drastically reduces the main source of carbon emissions in France: urban transport.” Paul-Adrien Cormerais – Co-founder, President
The 3 qualities of pony that make all the difference:
🇫🇷 France’s only shared mobility operator
💰 A participatory business model called Adopt a pony
👩❤️👩 The only two-seater electric bike designed for self-service: the Double pony
Adopt a pony: the world’s only participatory business model
Pony is founded on a unique participatory business model called Adopt a Pony. Each bike and scooter available for self-service belongs to a local resident, who recovers a share of the profits generated by each trip. Pony takes care of all operations: logistics, recharging and maintenance. With this model, pony aims to build active local communities committed to car-free urban mobility and the reduction of carbon emissions in their cities. For 70% of members, supporting a French impact company is an additional motivation.
“Adopt a pony now has over 1,800 owners in Europe. Often users of the service, they are residents convinced of the role pony has to play in the fight against climate change.” Clara Vaisse – Co-founder, Managing Director
“We are convinced that the provision of self-service electric bikes and scooters effectively complements the urban transport offer, particularly in medium-sized cities, with a low-carbon solution. We were also attracted by Pony’s participative approach, which enables part of the value to be retained within the community,” say Vladimir Bolze and Camille Le Roux Larsabal, respectively Partner and Investment Director at Épopée Gestion.
“We believed very early in the potential of Pony, which we have been supporting for over 4 years. Today, we’re delighted to renew our commitment alongside a remarkable team that has built and developed a unique participative model while proposing relevant innovations for shared mobility.” Eric Marty, Managing Partner, Demeter Investment Managers
“pony’s participative model makes all the difference. By involving local residents, pony is the only operator to offer a participative, sustainable and efficient model. It’s this kind of short-circuit mobility that we want to encourage. We are therefore delighted to support the founders of pony and their team.” Maxime Lambert, Aquiti Gestion.