MEXICO CITY & SÃO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Grin, Latin America’s leading electric scooter sharing company, and Yellow, Brazil’s leading provider of dockless bikes, e-bikes and scooters, are happy to announce they are combining in a merger that creates a new local champion for Latin America micro-mobility and online-to-offline (O2O) services. The new holding company will be called Grow Mobility Inc., deriving its name from both Grin and Yellow, and will initially maintain both apps and brands.
The combined company currently operates more than 135,000 vehicles across 6 countries and has plans to more than double its fleet and further build out its O2O offerings while expanding to more regions across Latin America over the coming months:
- Transportation Services: Grow is committed to addressing unmet urban mobility needs across LatAm, where the combination of high population density and insufficient public transportation infrastructure creates unique demand for micro-mobility services. Grow will maintain and add to Grin and Yellow’s existing scooter and dockless bike sharing services in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Chile, while also expanding to new markets.
- Digital Payments Services: Grow will leverage and continue to build out its own proprietary digital payments platform, which provides a safe and convenient way for the significant number of unbanked and underbanked users in Latin America to transact.
- Food Delivery Partnership: Grow will incorporate and expand on its existing partnership with Rappi, the largest food and grocery delivery platform in LatAm, which currently operates in 27 cities across 7 countries. Rappi’s more than 20 million users will be able to unlock scooters, bikes and e-bikes directly through the app.
“We are excited to unite two homegrown LatAm technology companies who share the same vision of transforming not just transportation, but also improving broader infrastructure services and spurring economic activity across our region,” said Jonathan Lewy, Grin co-founder and Chairman of Grow Mobility Inc. “The demand for these everyday services across Latin America is huge and, by combining strengths and resources, we will be able to move quickly to serve more users. We look forward to building on Grin and Yellow’s strong relationships with local officials and other stakeholders who are eager to partner with us in creating long-lasting value for our region,” said Sergio Romo, Grin co-founder and Global CEO of Grow.
Grow combines over 1,100 passionate team members from Grin and Yellow, and will be led by talented and experienced entrepreneurs from Latin America.
“We are incredibly lucky to bring together two experienced and successful teams with deep understanding of the mobility space and the localized needs of the customers we serve,” said Ariel Lambrecht, Yellow co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Grow Mobility Inc. “Both teams are passionate about improving lives in our urban areas. Together we have the talent, resources and local expertise to advance smart everyday infrastructure solutions for users across LatAm, and advance the region’s tech ecosystem more broadly.”
Brazilian/Argentinian entrepreneur and Yellow co-founder Ariel Lambrecht will serve as Chief Product Officer, leading the core product and engineering functions, as well as heading Brazilian operations alongside Marcelo Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Grin Brazil. Previously the co-founder of 99, Brazil’s first technology “unicorn,” Ariel will help to guide Grow with his deep product and mobility experience that will be critical as the combined company continues to scale.
The new Board of Directors for Grow will comprise Sergio Romo and Jonathan Lewy, Ariel Lambrecht, Marcelo Loureiro, Lukasz Gadowski from Flash and former founder of Delivery Hero, Carlo Dapuzzo from monashees, and Hans Tung from GGV Capital.
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The entire Grow team feels stronger than ever to fulfill its ambition of improving lives in urban areas.