Former executive of bike-sharing company ofo announced that they plan to launch an e-scooter sharing service in Singapore after raising US$6.4 million (S$9 million) in seed funding.
Branding itself as 'Beam', the former Asia-Pacific chief of ofo, Alan Jiang is one of the co-founders and CEO for Singapore-based scooter start-up.
In a media release on Tuesday, the start-up said it plans to invest heavily in developing core technology for it's shared mobility platform, including initial e-scooter purchases.
It will also focus on the development of its mobile application and growing the team for the eventual rollout.
Beam will only be eligible to apply for an operating licence beginning January 2019.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore, licence application exercises will be conducted twice a year, and the next one for personal mobility devices (PMD) will only open in January 2019.
"As with other operators interested in offering PMD-sharing services, LTA has invited Beam for an engagement session to share their plans," mentioned the authority in response to media queries.
Prior to this, Mr. Jiang was also the former country manager of Uber in Indonesia, and was part of the team that rolled out Uber in Asia.
“We want to change the fundamental way that people move around Asian cities. Our goal with Beam is to create a shared mobility platform focused on providing real transportation options,” he said in the media release.
It will cost S$1 to use the e-scooters, with a subsequent S$0.15/minute charge. No deposit will be required, according to a report from Bloomberg.