← State of Embedded Finance 2026

Bird

“Can a post-bankruptcy micromobility operator survive as a focused city-by-city scooter and bikeshare service after the consolidation of the shared-mobility market?”

Founded2017
HQSanta Monica, California, United States
FoundersTravis VanderZanden
Total raised$623M+ (pre-bankruptcy)
Latest roundSeries D extension, 2020
Valuation$2.75B (Series D, 2019)
IndustryMarketplace / Gig economy
The story

Founded 2017 as the original dockless e-scooter sharing pioneer in Santa Monica, growing explosively to a $2.75B valuation by 2019 on the back of urban micromobility hype. Aggressive acquisitions (Scoot 2019, Circ 2020) failed to deliver unit economics; post-SPAC IPO the company filed Chapter 11 in 2023 and was acquired out of bankruptcy. The operating entity today is Blue Jay Transit, Inc., running Bird-branded scooter and bikeshare fleets in partner cities — a consumer micromobility operator, not the embedded-finance platform that the bird.com (with a dot-com) communications API uses.

Last 12 months
2025-12
2023-05
Product timeline
2017
Founded by Travis VanderZanden as dockless e-scooter sharing service· launch
2019
Acquired Scoot for ~$25M to expand into San Francisco / moped market· acquisition
2020
Acquired German competitor Circ to expand European footprint· acquisition
2021
Went public via SPAC merger· ipo
2023
Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; assets acquired and brand continued under Blue Jay Transit, Inc.· pivot
2025
Bird Canada records record-breaking year, continues operating as Blue Jay Transit, Inc.· operations
The stack
Payments / PSP
PayPalApple PayGoogle Pay
Accounting gap: none