Two Romanian startups to develop e-scooter rental networks

Romanian startups Flow and Wolf-e Rides prepare to launch electric scooter rental services in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. They will compete on this segment with Lime, a billion-dollar US startup, which has reached an agreement with the Bucharest City Hall to bring 1,000 such e-scooters in the Romanian capital.

Romanian startup Flow, launched by local entrepreneur Iulian Padurariu, will launch its electric scooter rental service in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca next month. The service will also be introduced in Timisoara this summer and further expanded at national level.

The company will start with a fleet of about 500 electric scooters, but the target is to reach 2,000-3,000 vehicles by the end of the year, according to Profit.ro. The investment planned for this first year is about EUR 1 million.

Separately, Start-up.ro announced that Wolf-e Rides is also working on an electric scooter rental service. The startup co-founded by former investment banker Ciprian Paltineanu has invested USD 0.5 million to develop the first generation and will spend another USD 0.5 million to upgrade it to the second generation.

The electric scooters from Wolf-e are currently being tested in Bucharest, where they will become commercially available by the end of the month. In Cluj-Napoca, they will be available by the end of June. The fee for using them will include RON 2 for unlocking plus RON 0.5 per minute - RON 30 (EUR 6.3 per hour).

(Photo source: Shutterstock)