White Star Doubles Down on Micromobility in Asia by Leading SWING Mobility’s $24M Series B
By: Eddie Lee, Partner, Shun Nagao, Venture Partner, and Spencer Henry, Associate at White Star Capital
E-scooters, e-bikes and e-mopeds saw one of the fastest consumer adoption rates in the tech sector. We had a front-row seat for this category’s explosive growth over the years through our partnership with Tier Mobility, Europe’s number one player in the e-scooter sharing market. While the global transportation industry was heavily impacted by Covid-19 during the past two years, micromobility startups have offered a powerful alternative to public transportation, which further cemented our conviction on this industry.
Despite micromobility’s rapid rise in Europe and North America, Asian countries like South Korea and Japan are still in the early innings of market development, pointing to a big inflection point that will soon come for the industry in the region. Both countries are currently in the process of solidifying regulatory frameworks around micromobility. As we’ve seen in Europe, companies with fleet leadership and close partnerships with the local regulators will be best-positioned for success.
For these reasons, we’re delighted to announce our investment in San Kim and the team at SWING Mobility. SWING has become the largest micromobility player in South Korea in a remarkably short period of time, now operating 35,000 e-vehicles across the country in just two years. For its next stage of growth, SWING is now expanding geographically into Japan and launching a new business segment in last-mile delivery by offering e-scooters and e-mopeds to delivery riders through its Dayrider service. SWING’s Dayrider business aims to solve many of the pain points local delivery drivers face today, such as the high upfront costs of purchasing and maintaining e-scooters and e-mopeds, as well as the burdens of recharging batteries on these vehicles.
SWING’s rapid emergence as a major player in South Korea and its broader vision to become the primary operating platform for last-mile transportation and delivery in the region is driven by an exceptional team with deep industry expertise. Founder and CEO San Kim spent the past seven years in the mobility industry as an investor and an operator, most recently with Softbank Ventures Asia. San has also built an impressive team around him, which includes Jason Shin (COO) who brings highly relevant startup operations and business development experience, and Minki Park (CCO) who is an accomplished brand leader, having received numerous awards from Cannes Lions, Sundance, and others.
We are proud to be backing SWING and doubling down on the exciting opportunity in micromobility globally. We look forward to joining forces with SWING and supporting the team in its next stages of growth.
White Star Capital is a global multi-stage technology investment platform that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs building ambitious, international businesses. Operating out of Guernsey, New York, London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, our presence, perspective, and people enable us to partner closely with our Founders to help them scale internationally from Series A onwards.
