Berlin-based corporate mobility budget platform RYDES has just announced a €3.5 million seed round led by Assembly Ventures and Rethink Ventures, and with participation from Futury Capital and business angel Jens Krüger, Chief Product Architect at Workday.
Existing investors include Lufthansa Group, Forward31, the company builder of Porsche Digital, and Arabella Venture Capital, as well as additional angel investors. RYDES will use the new funding to further develop its mobility platform and expand into international markets outside of Germany.
RYDES simplifies corporate mobility management, saving time, effort and cost for companies. The effects of the covid pandemic and heightened awareness of climate change implications are catalyzing a global shift in the way people get around. An increasing number of employees are opting for flexible, individual, and sustainable mobility budgets instead of traditional company cars. Europe is leading the way when it comes to multi-modal mobility for employees and European governments are helping to speed adoption through subsidizing rail and public transport for employees and their employers respectively.
Founded in 202, the Berlin-based startup RYDES is tackling this opportunity with the first all-in-one mobility budget platform for employees offering seamless access to any kind of transportation. With RYDES, companies provide their teams with a monthly budget they can use flexibly via the RYDES app instead of having to pay in advance and submit the costs for ride hailing, car subscriptions or public transport individually.
Thanks to the fully automated integration into the company’s own HR, payroll and tax systems, firms save administrative effort, time and money. Employees, on the other hand, can choose at any time how they want to get to their destination: with shared mobility, public transport, rented bikes or cars, or with fuel or charge cards for their own cars. Additionally, RYDES is the only provider on the market that automatically offsets the resulting carbon footprint for companies via certified climate protection projects.
René Braun, Co-founder and CEO of RYDES, stated: “If you’re seeking to attract and keep driven talent, you will need to offer attractive and flexible mobility solutions. RYDES is the first Corporate mobility budget platform to meet these requirements. We offer full-spectrum bandwidth of services, from shared mobility to renting or leasing bikes and cars, fuel and charge cards, and public transport. The completion of our seed funding round is a major step on our mission towards becoming the go-to destination for all employee mobility needs, and providing businesses with an attractive, straightforward platform solution.”
Jessica Robinson, Partner at Assembly Ventures, commented: “Across Europe, governments are taking steps to promote multi-modal mobility and incentivise its use, including providing subsidies for both employees and employers to utilise rail and public transport. The lessons learned here will be of great importance to other regions in the coming years. RYDES is tackling this opportunity with an extremely smart approach that integrates different offerings for multi modal use cases via their integration with corporate HR systems. Their ability to capture detailed mobility, tax, and carbon footprint reporting data in real time, and provide optimised mobility options of individuals, is a game changer.”
