According to the CB Insights research brief, the average deal size in the space has been driven upwards by mega-deals for industry leaders that have already established themselves, like Ofo (raised $866 million in a Series F round), Mobike (raised $600 million in a Series E round last June), and Hellobike (raised $321 million in a Series F round), not newcomers.
“Seed funding as a percent of total deal share plummeted to 13% in 2018 YTD from 45% in 2017, replaced by a rising number of Series E+ rounds,” reads the report, with China taking a majority of the financing. CB Insights attributes this pace of the industry with dockless bikes in China which caught on quickly.
“The frenzy has since spread to the US in the form of dockless electric kick scooters,” reads the report. “Which has shifted the composition of global deal share within the past two years.”
According to Quartz, Ofo is actually going into “sleep mode” in North America, laying off employees “across the board.”
China's bike-sharing startup Ofo has laid off employees across the board in North America, as it scales back its U.S. operations, sources say #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/1TqTswysYW
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) July 20, 2018
The company told Quartz that it is not leaving the US, but rather this is part of a plan to focus on more successful markets.
These layoffs are seemingly part of a global retreat, after Ofo is reported to have left Germany, made plans to leave Australia and Israel, and also scaled back in the U.K.
While China does occupy a majority of the financing, the US is gaining deal share, and producing a few household names like Bird (raised $300 million in a Series C round) and Lime (raised $335 million in a Series C round). 2018 to-date reports show that the US has secured 50 per cent of the deals, with China securing 36 per cent.
