Micro-mobility operator Dott has raised £61m to fund expansion. The Belgian firm says the money will be used to introduce its service to new cities in the UK and Spain with an e-bike and e-scooter hire scheme due to start in London later this year.

In November 2020, Transport for London (TfL) and London Councils launched a competition to identify up to three e-scooter operators for a 12-month trial.

Dott – which has been running share schemes in 15 European cities – was named as one of the operators the following month.

A March launch date was originally mooted, but this appears to have been pushed back.

The London scheme is set to be the first to also make use of Dott’s e-bike.

Explaining the move, Dott co-founder Maxim Romain said: “The e-scooter is great, it’s super exciting to ride, but very clearly it’s not something that my mother today would want to use.

“If I want to be able to offer a service for everyone, I need to offer a service that my mother also can use, and therefore I thought that the e-bike is probably the most universal vehicle that we could offer to people in cities.”

Commenting on the latest round of funding, the firm’s other co-founder, Henri Moissinac, said: “We’ve shown in the first two years that we can offer a great service for users, good for the planet and good for European cities.

“We think we have a winning formula now, combining operational excellence, hardware and software expertise, collaboration with city stakeholders and capital efficiency.

“Thanks to our new and existing investors, our aim is now to accelerate, serve more users and more cities, in the most reliable and affordable way possible.”