The shared motorcycle brand Yego incorporates 'ebikes' and services for companies

The electric scooter rental company Yego, owner of the mint green scooters that travel through Barcelona with a retro style reminiscent of the mythical Vespas, has expanded its services by incorporating a specific offer aimed at corporate clients, that is, other companies. This option has already been subscribed by about 300 businesses of various types, among them, a coworking firm based in the city.

"The interesting thing is that quickly, companies without mobility needs during the workday have approached Yego to offer their employees a sustainable way to commute to and from work," with significant savings in labor mobility costs, "but also to use them during their free time," explains Tim Ougeot, co-founder of the startup in 2016 and current head of marketing.

Ougeot is one of the speakers who will participate on November 30 in the Barcelona Talent-ed Summit, organized by The New Barcelona Post and the Barcelona City Council to discuss the potential of the Catalan capital to attract international talent. The entrepreneur explains how the new Yego Business service also offers companies the possibility of subscribing to the Yego Perks option, through which they assume the payment of a percentage of the expense incurred by the employee when using micromobility vehicles, as a measure to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. "With the ultimate goal of improving the experience and well-being of employees who travel to offices or professional appointments," specifies Yann Sander, co-founder and product manager.

To facilitate green journeys in Barcelona ---the city where Tim Ougeot, Benjamin Viguier, and Yann Sander created the company and where their corporate headquarters are located, in the Poblenou neighborhood---, Yego has 632 scooters and 300 electric bicycles. Tim Ougeot laments that in the Catalan capital they cannot provide shared scooter service because, although the Barcelona City Council committed to regulating this activity, the regulations have not yet arrived.

However, they have started a pilot experience with electric scooters in Bordeaux, the French city where they operate through a franchise. They are also present in Paris and, with motorsharing services, in Valencia, Seville, and Malaga. The fleet of motorcycles among all the municipalities where they work is 2,567 vehicles.

"In Bordeaux, scooters work very well, despite there being great competition in these services, so we have decided to test both types of vehicles in the French city, meaning we will also open ebike rentals," explains Ougeot. The head of Yego specifies that, while an agreement was reached with the German manufacturer Emco for motorcycles, for bicycles and scooters a different vehicle adapted to sharing (removable battery, fairing,…) has been developed, and they expect to design new versions in the medium term.

The growth of the Yego platform responds to the exponential increase in demand for sharing services in all cities where the company is present, which has registered three million trips in the last twelve months, meaning that every 12 seconds a user reserves one of its vehicles. This will allow it to reach seven million in revenue by the end of the current fiscal year.

With three million trips made in the last year, the platform registers a reservation every twelve seconds

Benjamin Viguier, co-founder and CEO of Yego, emphasizes that their mission is "to improve the well-being and quality of life of citizens through smart shared mobility in large cities, as a new way of living more flexible and sustainable."

Since its launch, Yego has managed to raise 17 million euros from private, international investors and banking entities. The last financing round closed in mid-2020, in which it raised 7.5 million euros subscribed by a single investor, the Dutch fund Ponooc, specialized in mobility and renewable energies.

Thanks to this, the platform has continued its expansion and there are already more than 110 people ---70 of whom are in Barcelona--- who are part of a team full of talent: designers, marketers, product owners and executives who firmly believe that the mobility of the future is what they are building. Their experience will be one of those presented at the Barcelona Talent-ed Summit, which aims to give visibility to this growing phenomenon of attracting international talent that the city is experiencing.

The typical Yego user is a middle-aged person, about 31 years old, and of a very diverse typology depending on the city, the season, and even the time slot of the service. Overall, 58% are men and 42% are women. For all of them, the company continues to innovate and add new functionalities such as taking a photo once the journey is finished to check that the motorcycle is parked in an authorized area. This, and the remote and connected control of the entire fleet allows managing mobility flows, hot zones and cold zones and better meeting market needs in general and providing answers to its riders.