Established in 2020, UAE-based Neo Mobility is known for offering ‘Last-Mile Solutions’ through an all-electric logistics service.
In today’s episode of the ‘Start-up of the Week‘, International Finance will talk about a venture which in October 2023, raised USD 10 million in funding, that will be utilized for scaling up Neo Mobility’s fleet of 5,000 electric vehicles by 2025.
In the coming days, Neo Mobility will be launching operations with its new fleet of GSO-certified electric motorbikes, with a driving range of 175 km. The plan has been approved by the UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MOIAT) and Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and will enable food aggregators, e-commerce platforms, and logistics companies to achieve their net zero goals.
Among its other plans, the start-up will also be implementing its smart charging infrastructure with battery swapping stations across the Emirate, enabling the Neo riders to swap batteries within 60 seconds.
Knowing The Venture In Detail
Neo Mobility’s expertise lies in providing the best mobility management solutions in arenas like car sharing, rental, leasing, dealership and private fleet management.
Neo helps its clients to solve their fleet management-related problems, in terms of saving time and money, through structured documentation and organized resources, while raising the efficiency and optimization of the fleet management processes. The venture also helps its users improve their customer experience and fidelity by providing more control over their vehicles.
Neo works through two solutions, its ‘Platform’ and the ‘App’. While the ‘Platform’ allows the client to manage his/her fleet in a very flexible and automated manner, the ‘App’ on the other hand, helps the customer to open and close their vehicles, manage his/her bookings, report damage and deciding upon whether the person wants to up/downgrade the car depending on what’s available in the Neo’s fleet.
Both the ‘Platform’ and the ‘App’ provide various integrated options, which cover all the needs of fleet management by providing effective solutions to specific problems.
The ‘App’, available in iOS & Android, apart from being user-friendly and fast responsive, also supports all types of vehicles, various pricing and payment models, multiple languages, professional/private modes (suited for corporate sharing) and many other features.
Neo’s fleet management tool also allows the users to effortlessly manage their own fleets and the start-up also helps in the process by customizing the solution as per the customers’ convenience. The platform is already integrated with different telematics systems and can be linked to any other IoT (Internet of Things) solutions, as per the client’s needs.
“Our platform supports role management in order to let you configure what information will be seen and by whom in your company. It’s also ready to integrate with any third-party services that you need like your ERP, CRM, accounting system, push notifications and analytics,” Neo stated further.
Headquartered in Europe, Neo possesses a team of professionals, who are well experienced in the mobility and car-sharing businesses. Neo is also the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region’s first B2B start-up to offer last-mile solutions through a captive EV infrastructure business model, thereby aligning with the UAE Net Zero and COP28 agenda to build a greener future.
“With over 90,000 motorbikes on UAE roads, it results in 480,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to over 53 billion smartphones charged or over 49 million gallons of gasoline consumed,” commented a Wamda article on the venture.
How The Solutions Work
“From setup to upscale, our Sharing Platform is built to suit all your business’ specific needs,” Neo stated, whose solution allows the sharing company to handle all the setup of their business. From managing the vehicles, handling the pricing setup, and taking care of the booking types and customer groups to vehicle tracking, Neo’s ‘Sharing’ solution makes the client the controlling authority, when it comes to handling the ride-sharing business.
The ‘Sharing’ solution also comes with an ‘App’, which lets the client’s customers create their bookings, locate their vehicle and perform the check-in functions.
Neo’s multimodal sharing platform fits the needs of companies offering ride-sharing in both two and four-wheeler categories. The client venture can also set up their ride-sharing operating model (ranging from free-floating, station-based to corporate and peer-to-peer ones) and tailor the digital platform with things like a management dashboard, operational team apps, API and third-party integration set-ups.
Neo’s ‘Fleet Management Web Portal’ also helps ride-sharing ventures to seamlessly deal with their fleets, customers, vehicle bookings, pricing models, data and reports, payment systems, invoices, fines and a lot of other functions.
The portal also allows the client ride-sharing venture to integrate its online platform with third-party services like ERP, CRM, Accounting system, push notifications and analytics.
Neo’s ‘Rental’ solution enables its clients to ‘deploy the power of digital’ in their operations. The platform allows the beneficiary to exploit the power and precision of the sharing planning for the venture’s rental activities. Once the business’ vehicles are configured and connected, it can create or edit the booking ‘manually’ on the platform for the customer or let the customer create/edit the booking all by himself/herself.
“In just a few clicks, you have a clear and detailed view of your fleet. A modern and fully customizable tool that allows you to automate your fleet management operations, apart from having better control of your vehicle fleet and significantly reducing your fleet management costs,” Neo stated.
Neo’s digital solutions also cover the vehicle dealership and leasing markets.
Neo In News
Talking about Neo’s ‘Smart Charging Infrastructure’, the last-mile EV start-up’s battery swapping stations will be strategically located across UAE’s commercial hubs and districts. Along with that, the venture will be providing its customers with smart dashboard reports highlighting their CO2 emissions savings.
Making worker welfare its top focus, Neo will equip its riders with safety gear, smart helmets and telematics, apart from eliminating mobile phone usage, and enabling crash detection warnings. The venture will also be providing critical illness and injury insurance coverage along with life insurance, 24/7 rider and driver support and fixed working hours.
The start-up will also be tapping into the ride-hailing sector with its fleet of Tesla cars, with its state-of-the-art EV fast charging infrastructure ensuring drivers recharge their vehicles in less than 30 minutes.
Innovating its leasing solution further, Neo Mobility plans to enable its drivers to pursue a lease-to-own model, empowering these individuals to become entrepreneurs. Neo will also be looking to lease its fleet to third-party logistics (3PL) companies, enhancing the adoption of sustainable transportation in the UAE and wider region.