In this episode, Oliver interviews Martin Mignot, a general partner at Index Ventures and panelist on our ‘Capital in Micromobility’ panel at the upcoming Micromobility Europe conference in Berlin. Index Ventures were early investors in Bird, and have a long history of investing in the micro and macro mobility space over the last 15 years.
Specifically, we dug into:
- His thesis around investing in mobility companies, and why the smartphone/internet has proved so transformational
- Index’s investment in Bird, and why their focus on design and brand differentiates them starkly from the competition
- His investment in Cowboy, his bullishness on high end owned micromobility, and how software/hardware integration can create outsized value.
- The evolving funding landscape for shared scooters, and how he sees that progressing over the two years.
- Why Paris has been a model laboratory for how the market for shared operations will develop over time.
- How the pointy end of micromobility tech has started to hit the hard concrete of infrastructure, and how it’s increasingly dragging him into debates about infrastructure.
It’s a really fun interview - one of our best so far! Well worth a listen.