Shared micromobility company Luup has raised $8 million (1 billion yen) in debt and asset financing to meet the growing demands of Japan’s micromobility market, which according to a recent report, is projected to reach $11.6 billion in 2030, up from $39.4 million in 2020.
Luup will use the proceeds to expand its service to cities across the country, targeting both large and small touristic cities as international travel begins to pick back up, according to CEO Daiki Okai. Okai would not specify which cities Luup hopes to expand to, but he did say the company would more than double its fleet size within the next month.
Founded in 2018, Luup rolled out its fleet of shared e-scooters in April 2021 and shared e-bikes in May 2020. Okai told TechCrunch that it had more than 2,000 e-scooters and e-bikes in total as of February 2022, a number that should reach about 5,000 by mid-May.
Currently, the company services Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Yokohama …
