Su$tainable Mobility, Volume 16 🚲
This newsletter aims to separate the signal from the noise for making money in all things sustainable transportation: Electrification, mode shift, active and public transit, and mobility aggregation, across both people and goods movement.
This week, instead of a Deep Dive, we have a founder Q&A with Jesse Forrester, Founder and CEO at Mazi Mobility.
Disclaimer: This newsletter represents individual thoughts and not those of any employer. I will always disclose when I have a financial relationship with a company cited.
🅿️ Curbivore is coming to Los Angeles on January 28! The pandemic has caused a surge in demand for curb space and now cities are left wondering how to equitably dole out space to everything from outdoor dining and last mile delivery to ridehail, micromobility and delivery robots. Get $100 off your ticket with the promo code ‘FriendofAlex’.
QUICK HITS: Fast takes on notable news from last 2 weeks
🇮🇳 Indian cities, like Delhi and Gurugram, are getting serious about banning heavy duty trucks, at least temporarily. Access to the city, whether in developed or emerging markets, is not guaranteed.
📦 NYC is getting into the curb management game. The lowly parking meter is dying thanks to software and connected sensors. This is a huge opportunity for cities to generate revenue and manage social and environmental outcomes by pricing curb access in real time.
🚲 Is the answer free ebikes for all? There is a compelling argument to be made that some EV subsidies are too high (potentially passenger cars) and that we could accomplish both decarbonization and mode shift goals by getting many more e-bikes in the hands of many more people.
🤖 DoorDash may build its own delivery robots. The valuations of some delivery robot companies are quite impressive. It will take a while to determine whether service providers such as DoorDash can bring enough capabilities to robot design offset their lack of deep hardware focus.
🕵️ Some Uber alums from the spying scandal are finding their careers haven’t recovered. It’s a good reminder of how high the stakes get when people believe that a winner-take-all global mobility market is up for grabs.
🛤 Was America’s great railroad expansion mostly a myth? Some really good cautionary tales in here as we think about the the Infrastructure Bill and Build Back Better, especially as it pertains to things like national EV charging networks.
🅿️ San Francisco reacts to crime by giving away free parking. Free parking is like free heroin; I struggle to come up with examples of when it’s a good thing. There are some disconcerting trends in NYC and SF relating to public safety and the ensuing mobility choices. Shared, public, and active transit can only work when people feel safe; otherwise, we end up in a death spiral of private car usage.
🧷 In better news, Jersey City is moving in the right direction by authorizing a municipal secure bike parking system. Any bike or e-bike owner will tell that one of the biggest barriers to racking up even more miles is the worry about whether your bike will stay safe when you arrive at your destination.
🔋 Swedish researchers are using ultrasound to improve battery recycling. Battery recycling will be a gigantic business, relying on sophisticated software and robotics technologies.
♎️ The net effect of shared scooters on bus ridership is zero. It’s encouraging to see that social uses of scooters can help complement bus systems.
⚠️ CNET slams Tesla over safety software. It will probably take something with more teeth than a website for Tesla to stop beta testing on public roads.
STARTUP WATCH: Sustainable mobility startups (generally pre-seed or seed) to keep an eye on
🔐Kanguro (Spain): Independent competing with Amazon hub apartment locker
📡 mceasy (Indonesia): Telematics for logistics operations and vehicle location tracking
📲 Owlee (Belgium): Consumer app for finding and rating bike parking
👩💻 Sendmee (Sweden): SaaS for last mile delivery logistics
FOUNDER Q&A: Jesse Forrester, Mazi Mobility
Q: What does your company do?
A: Mazi assembles and sells electric motorbikes as well as builds and operates the electric vehicle infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Q: What is the problem your company is solving?
A: Mass mobility in Africa is broken. It’s inefficient, dirty, and costly relative to per capita income. Mazi recognizes that for any marginal change in this industry to occur, the problem has to be tackled from a holistic point of view. Therefore, Mazi is trying to solve two problems at the same time: the high operational costs and inefficiencies for mass mobility operators, as well as pressure on existing infrastructure caused by the increase in urban population.
First, mass mobility operators incur high operation costs, for example, boda riders in Nairobi spend up to 60% of their revenue on fuel costs and maintenance fees. The overall cost increases with the size of the vehicle making this an industry-wide problem. Furthermore, mass mobility in Africa remains a traditional industry, with mainly informal stakeholders. All in all, the current system hinders the ability of operators to grow their services and result in high prices for public transport.
Secondly, as Africa has the fastest-growing population, road infrastructure in many major cities is pushed to its limit. Research has predicted a $1 Trillion dollar infrastructure deficit in Africa in the coming years. Traveling in Nairobi is stressful, with traffic jams causing long traveling times. With public transport methods such as buses not being developed quickly enough, the majority of the population remain constrained to use informal and unreliable transport modes such as matatus and bodaboda.
Q: How do you think about quantifying the sustainability impacts of your company in the mobility sector?
A: Due to the fact that we sell the EV motorbike and build the infrastructure to support it, we directly have input when it comes to reducing carbon emissions and effluent. Fun fact: traditional motorbikes are 10x more pollutive per mile than SUVs! At Mazi we observe the number of swaps and directly correlate that with the amount of CO2 emissions mitigated. We are looking to source some parts locally to reduce the emissions from freight and since Kenya’s grid is 92% clean we would be very close to a truly zero-emissions product.
Q: What funding stage is your company at and where are you headed next?
A: Seed Stage. We are actually raising capital. We have huge plans in the next year to electrify at least 1,000 motorbikes in Nairobi and successfully serve our market with electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Our ambition is to serve Africa and, by extension, the global south with access to sustainable mobility products.
Q: What business challenge are you most looking forward to addressing in the next year?
A: Fleshing out our swapping station network. Mazi aims to serve riders intuitively with strategically placed swapping stations and leveraging data to ensure we are attuned to customer needs. We have seen some positive indications of our work already and hope to deploy across Nairobi with stations that allow for peace of mind for our customers.
Q: What's the best book you've read in the last year?
A: Think Simple! I love it. Many times as entrepreneurs we are feature obsessed. The book is amazing in that it reminds us to go back to first principles and more often than not the simplest solution is not only the most elegant but the best.
Q: Favorite guilty pleasure?
A: Anime :)
Q: What's been the hardest thing you've had to do as a founder?
A: Choosing to be a solo founder and facing rejection constantly was really hard.
Q: What advice would you give other founders in the sector?
A: Keep your chin up! Mobility solutions are difficult to implement but remember your why! We are all on a mission to solve a really complex problem. So cut yourself some slack sometime and get back to grinding when you can. We are in this together.
