Tier changes name to Dott following merger of two micromobility companies

Tier and Dott, two of Europe’s leading scooter and bike sharing services, are becoming one service called Dott. Both startups have already developed plans to merge and create one company in January 2024.

With this merger, the companies did not want to build a conglomerate of micromobility services; what mattered most about the operation was scale. With razor-thin margins, micromobility is a difficult industry, and scale is an important element in improving unit economics and expanding the fleet of available vehicles to better compete with space leader Lime.

“When we combined the two companies, we wanted to operate as one company, with one technology stack and one set of operating practices around the world; just one company, not two companies,” Dott CEO Henri Moissinac told TechCrunch.

Therefore, the company is moving everything to one application and one fleet of vehicles, also for the end consumer. Tier users will be gradually redirected to the Dott app in individual cities. The migration should take place by March 2025.

“If you are in a city where Tier was operating but Dott was not, users will need to download the new app. If you have the latest app from Tier, it’s just a few clicks away. If not, you need to download and re-register,” Moissinac said.

Recumbent bikes and electric scooters aren’t going anywhere. They will be refreshed with Dott stickers covering the level logos. You may have seen this change in some cities where both Tier and Dott were available.

“The big challenge was bringing both fleets together under one technology stack, rebuilding our standard operating practices… we saw that some things were done very well here, some things were done very well there, and we are trying to combine those two things,” Moissinac said.

The new Dott fleet covers 427 cities in Europe and the Middle East; the overlap was quite small as Dott and Tier just competed in 17 cities. In total, it represents approximately 250,000 bicycles and electric scooters.

Over the past year, Dott and Tier served just over 10 million unique passengers who used these mobility services on 100 million trips. This means an average of 10 trips per passenger for very frequent users and customers who have only used the service once. The company believes that this is one of the most important indicators in the future.

“Our strategy focuses largely on local communities. We are a local service for residents who travel frequently. For me, the most important indicator is the number of monthly trips per active cyclist,” said Moissinac.

Under this strategy, ride volumes grow faster than company revenues as Dott promotes passes to increase repeat use. For example, in Paris you can buy a ticket for €4.99, which will make all journeys for the next 30 days cost a flat fee of €1.75 per journey.

When Dott and Tier announced their merger, they also raised €60 million (about $67 million at current exchange rates). There is no funding round following Monday’s announcement. “We don’t mind cash,” Moissinac said.

“We don’t need more cash, but we have opportunities that we can unlock if we invest a little more cash. I don’t know if we will do it now or later… Winter is usually a good time to think about the strategy for next year,” he added.