Making Every Mile Possible

Moving people and products around urban environments is an increasingly complex task. Just ask the 4.5 billion people — more than half the global population — who currently live and work in densely-populated cities around the world. This figure is expected to jump to 7 billion people (and an additional 1 billion vehicles) within the next 25 years, which means cities are only going to get more crowded, congested, and difficult to navigate. Competition for road space isn’t just due to the sheer volume of everyday commuters: With e-commerce growing at about 8% each year and projected to account for nearly a quarter of global sales by 2028, additional vehicles will also be required to meet rising demands for same-day delivery. With a finite amount of space and growing physical strains to city infrastructure — not to mention the environmental impact — more trains, buses, and/or cars aren’t the answer. Not only do higher-occupancy vehicles take up precious road space, they are the most energy-intensive form of transportation for the numerous short trips people take throughout the day. In the U.S. alone, 80% of all car trips are under 15 miles, and and 50% are fewer than six miles. Meanwhile, car travel creates around 50% of global carbon emissions. This convergence of trends means we have to think big and build small. We need reliable, energy-efficient mobility solutions for every mile, in every city, on crowded roads that are most easily navigated by small vehicles. This is why Eclipse and Rivian joined forces to build Also: a first-of-its-kind, global micromobility company. Micromobility is not a new concept, but Also has imagined an entirely new solution unlike any other micromobility company. It isn’t based on a single form factor like an e-bike or a scooter. Nor is it based on a single business model like a consumer app focused on a single use case. Also has developed a vertically integrated micromobility platform that underpins a variety of electrified form factors for different use cases, geographies, and price points. The company is the product of our shared vision for the potential for micomobility to become an exciting, scalable, energy-efficient solution to the growing challenges of road transportation. Initially conceived within Rivian and developed there for its first three years, Also has now spun out as an independent company fully backed by Eclipse. Former Specialized Chief Product and Technology Officer Chris Yu, who led the stealth microteam inside Rivian, will serve as Also’s President. Eclipse is thrilled to be the initial funders of Also, which has raised $105 million to date and has built a legendary leadership team with experience spanning technology, transportation, recreation, retail, and more from iconic companies including Rivian, Specialized, REI, Apple, Tesla, Uber, and Google. This is the world’s most advanced micromobility platform: The full stack architecture has been developed in house — from motors and batteries, to electrical architecture and software. This unlocks a customer experience, customization options, vehicle capabilities and economic impact never seen before. We want to provide every-mile road transportation for people and products across the world’s most populous, busy urban environments, which demands a solution as varied, layered, and intricate as the different geographies they serve. This provides an opportunity for unprecedented scaling that others haven’t been able to do — despite the incredible tailwinds behind the market. Already at $122 billion globally, the micromobility market is on track to reach $440 billion by 2035. State and local municipalities are leaning heavily into initiatives to reduce — or even eliminate — cars in the busiest parts of urban areas in an effort to ease congestion and emissions, while shrinking road space has pushed individuals and e-commerce businesses to adopt small vehicles like e-bikes, mopeds, microcars, electric scooters, and even electric unicycles at rapid rates. However, the current offerings cannot serve the demands of today, let alone the future. For individual consumers, many micromobility options available today have terrible user experience and performance. Most are either energy-inefficient, have a high total cost of ownership, or both. For businesses, the ability to provide fast, reliable delivery service rests on how efficiently they can navigate complex, congested urban environments. This requires a modern tech stack that today’s micromobility vehicles just don’t have. This gap in the market was something Rivian CEO and Founder RJ Scaringe discussed with me often — I was an early employee at Rivian and spent nine years at the company in leadership roles including Chief of Strategy and Chief Commercial Officer before joining Eclipse in 2024. At Rivian, we spent a tremendous amount of time talking with customers, learning about their unique needs and preferences as the electric vehicle market was rapidly evolving (and subsequently figuring out what Rivian had to do to be an instrumental part of that industry’s evolution). It was in these conversations that we began to learn of the desire for non-car forms of transportation, but still with a Rivian-like approach — software-first, energy-efficient, connected to a holistic platform — that could go where cars couldn’t. We knew the need was great enough (and the market was big enough) that this problem was worth building a solution for. Similar to how Rivian was designed, we took a clean-sheet, first-principles approach to everything. We put together a select team of the best people across multiple disciplines who, collectively, could figure out the best architecture for the platform, then rapidly execute. This stealth team of experts across propulsion, electrical engineering, software, industrial design, and more, were able to build, test, iterate, and repeat as fast as they could. Numerous revisions had taken place by the time I joined Eclipse, and the challenge of micromobility was still at the forefront of my mind. The timing was perfect, as I soon learned the firm had been thinking about micromobility for years. As a firm focused squarely on transforming physical industries through the marriage of bits and atoms, Eclipse was searching for scalable, efficient transportation modes built for the modern world. It was critical that this mode be built with resilience in mind; able to adapt to increasing urbanization and infrastructure limitations while staying cost-effective and energy-efficient. This was exactly what Rivian had been talking about. Together, we discovered we knew what it took to build the solution to our growing road transportation challenges. We knew we had to create Also as a standalone company. Also is built from the same DNA as Rivian, the same physical world-changing vision of Eclipse, and the full stack mindset about micromobility of both. From Rivian, Also has top tier-talent across engineering, design, and GTM, as well connections to optimized supply chain, and the best resources and relationships needed to actually carry out the complex processes like materials sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and piloting. From Eclipse, Also has access to a team of former operators with deep experience building and scaling generational companies across physical industries. As I said, this isn’t just another micromobility company. Very soon we’ll be sharing more about what makes Also so different. Stay tuned for the product reveal in Q4! More on today’s news from TechCrunch.Follow Eclipse on LinkedIn or sign up for Eclipse’s Newsletter for the latest on building the New Economy.