BIRD, the company whose rentable electric scooters can be seen across major cities in the US has filed for bankruptcy.
Founder Travis VanderZanden is a former exec at Uber and Lyft, but his scooter startup has had an uneasy ride since it began in 2017.
Bird Global Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, six years after it was founded by former Uber Technologies Inc. executive, Travis VanderZanden.
Bird allows customers to rent its electric scooters, seen on the sidewalks of major cities like New York City, Miami, and San Francisco, via an app.
Users pay just $1 to unlock the scooter and then $0.15 per minute to ride it.
Bird pioneered the business model of e-scooter rentals, which has been copied by several imitators since.
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At its peak, the company was valued at over $1 billion, but the business model of electric scooter rentals has come under question recently.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
They have been banned by the governments of several cities worldwide, including Barcelona, Philadelphia, Sydney, and Toronto.
Bid was delisted on the New York Stock Exchange in September after its market value fell below $15m for 30 consecutive days..
The filing in the US Bankruptcy Court of Miami found the company has between $100 million and $500 million in assets and liabilities
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Bird plans to survive the bankruptcy and maintain a presence in the cities of the US by selling its assets over the next four months.
“We are making progress toward profitability and aim to accelerate that progress by right-sizing our capital structure through this restructuring," said interim chief executive officer Michael Washinushi.
"We remain focused on our mission to make cities more livable by using micromobility to reduce car usage, traffic and carbon emissions."
THE FOUNDER
Bird founder VanderZanden left the company in June after resigning as chairperson of the board.
The former chief executive officer faced criticism during the pandemic when he laid off 40% of his workforce in a Zoom call.
He has an estimated net worth of $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
In 2020, he purchased a Bel Air mansion previously owned by Trevor Noah.
As well as his roles at Bird, Uber, and Lyft, VanderZanden was also the founder of an on-demand car wash service, Cherry.
But Bird is not the only once-hot company to declare bankruptcy this year.
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WeWork filed for Chapter 11 in November, affecting 193 offices in the US alone.
And SmileDirectClub has apologized after abruptly shutting down due to bankruptcy.
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