Sean Flood was just 18 months removed from selling Gotcha Mobility, the US micromobility company he co-founded with business partner David Touwsma, when the pair bought FrogMobility through their EFO Ventures investment fund last May and decided to headquarter the e-mobility venture in Ireland.
Prior to the purchase, Frog was active in a number of cities in the US, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Australia.
It has now deployed nearly 1,500 e-scooters, e-bikes and other devices in eight European markets, with plans to expand to 100 European locations in the next three years.
Frog has already launched in Portugal, Poland, Sweden and Malta, and it is eyeing mid-sized markets in Europe with 30,000 to 100,000 people that are easily navigable by bike or scooter with fewer than three competitors as it aims to increase its footprint across the continent.
Irish-American Flood, whose father emigrated to the US from Leitrim, said there are 15 such markets in Ireland -- a country that “lays out very well for this business” – among them, several councils in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Sligo and Donegal, where Flood lives with his family, and the north-east.
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Frog is targeting 10 markets for immediate expansion and currently aiming to raise €350,000 through an equity crowdfunding campaign, on the basis of a €7m valuation, as it attempts to scale the company.
Having successfully scaled and sold Gotcha, re-entering the micromobility space and trying to do it all over again may seem odd, but Flood says he is “passionate” about the sector and believes Frog was “too good to pass up”.
“When I looked at the opportunity with Frog and partnering with Lee Roche and headquartering the company in Ireland; what was happening in Europe from a growth and an adoption standpoint, it was almost kind of too good to pass up.
“I think we just had this convergence of all the things that could really make it successful – big demand, large opportunity from a lot of markets that kind of fit what we're trying to go after. It wasn't my intention to get right back into it, but I think the opportunity was again, just too good to pass up.”
With legislation to govern the road use of e-scooters still to be passed into law, Flood and co are “looking to build the business outside of Ireland,” but Dublin, and Ireland more generally, is a market that Frog “really wants,” and Flood is hoping the firm’s homegrown credentials will assist its growth here.
“I think every company wants Ireland,” he said. “So we're not unique in that but I'll say this: I do think it's very important that Irish mobility operators operate in Ireland. And I'd say that for other countries as well. There are local operators who know the market, their team is from there, and I think Ireland's no different.
“Luckily, Ireland has what I think are really great mobility operators. Not just Frog, there are a few others that I admire as well, so while I think everybody is going to apply, Ireland, as a country has an opportunity that I think, is an exciting one, as you can actually partner with Irish-made operators who have invested in the country long before a permit was available. We'll see if they take me up on that."
Frog has taken a proactive attitude towards Ireland despite the wait, establishing ridership training schools to teach people how to use its products and encourage people to embrace e-scooters and the like with events at football clubs, schools, universities and large employers such as hotel groups.
The effort is a by-product of Flood's experience of the difficulty in convincing authorities to build infrastructure such as bike and shared mobility lanes before launch. The firm works with municipalities to “educate citizens and increase usage,” so decision makers can “visualise” the potential usage when it comes to usage schemes.
At present, Frog is generating annual revenue of €400,000, but management expects turnover to rise to €2.5m in 2022, with a target of €18m next year. The founders have invested €200,000 in product development to date, and improvements in the products should pay dividends in the medium to long term.
Frog has partnered with a company called Element LEV to design its products, including the X10 scooter, which has turn signals, pavement and helmet detection technology as well as an expected lifespan of three to five years, when previously scooters would last months.
“They’re more expensive to make now than a few years ago, but they’re 10x better from a longevity standpoint,” said Flood. “Devices used to cost $400-800 but didn’t last. Companies were burning capex, which was impossible to recoup, even with high ridership, because of operating costs
“Now that you have a device that can last three to five years and those prices haven't exponentially gone up. It becomes a pretty profitable business very quickly if you find the right markets, if you have the right team and as part of that you have people willing and wanting to ride this service."
Usage is all app-based and typically works with an unlock fee that users pay to lease the device in addition to a price per time on the device, but Flood hopes to shift more towards a mobility subscription, which could account for 10-15% of revenue in the coming years.
He also expects usage to increase as perceptions of e-scooters and e-bikes change from something of a touristy gimmick to a transit system for regular users, with operations teams learning where to deploy devices on the basis of data patterns.
“There are companies out there who take the approach of just trying to deploy wherever they can,” Flood said. “That's not the best path in my in my opinion, but if you go the normal route, which is meet with the municipality, figure out what they're looking for, kind of create a programme around it, that's very similar to the US, and I think makes a big, big difference from a kind of success or failure standpoint.”
(Pic: FrogMobility/Instagram)
