Luup raises $30 million to lead Japan's micro-mobility sector

Luup, a Japanese shared micro-mobility startup has raised $30 million (4.5 billion yen) in a Series D financing round with 3.8 billion yen in equity and 700 million yen in debt.

The funding brings the total raised by the EV startup to date to $68 million in equity, debt, and asset financing, at what sources said valued the firm at over $100 million – and at a time when the Japanese government is loosening e-scooter regulations in light of the sector’s growing popularity.

Luup introduced its shared e-scooters in 2021, even though it was founded in 2018, and currently boasts a fleet of approximately 10,000 e-scooters and e-bikes. The company reports over 1 million app downloads in Japan and has expanded its network of ports to 3,000 across six cities this year.

Luup aims to cater to hundreds of thousands of daily commuters and transform underutilized open spaces into delegated parking stations for its e-scooters and e-bikes, including office buildings, condominiums, storefronts, and smaller urban spaces.

The mobility sector in Japan is already gearing up to be fierce, with global e-scooter companies such as Bird and South Korea's Swing having entered the Tokyo market, although with limited success so far.

Luup appears to be ahead of the pack, now boasting the largest number of ports in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, and with ambitious plans to expand to more than 10,000 parking stations by 2025.