San Francisco Chronicle

The 12 scooter companies that plan to roll through S.F.

- Sources: SFMTA, Crunchbase, Chronicle research

BIRD

Headquarte­rs: Santa Monica Funding: $265 million

Its Silicon Valley backers hope this company will be the Uber of sidewalk scooters. Bird backs proposed California legislatio­n making it legal to ride scooters on sidewalks and for adults to ditch helmets, but for now it says it will provide helmets to “active riders” for free on request. Offers a “Save Our Sidewalks” pledge to sweep broken scooters off streets. Claims it complied with city enforcemen­t efforts when operating without a permit.

HOPR

Headquarte­rs: Miami Beach, Fla.

Funding: $3.9 million Formerly known as CycleHop, this company says it pioneered automated bike-share stations in 1997. Customers without a smartphone can call customer service to ride.

JUMP (UBER)

Headquarte­rs: New York Funding: $27.1 billion (for Uber)

This company became a subsidiary of Uber in April when the San Francisco ride-hailing company paid a reported sum of about $200 million to buy its way into electric bike rentals. Now Jump is becoming Uber’s entry into the scooter wars. It’s proposing public scooter racks, similar to bike racks.

LIME

Headquarte­rs: San Mateo Funding: $382 million

GV, the venture arm of Google parent Alphabet, reportedly led a $250 million round of financing in Lime this month. Unlike Bird, it acknowledg­ed prior violations and said it paid fines.

LYFT

Headquarte­rs: San Francisco Funding: $4.3 billion

Where Uber goes, Lyft swiftly follows. Its proposed scooters have a dash of pink, just in case you might forget who rents that scooter.

OFO

Headquarte­rs: Beijing

Funding: $2.2 billion Coming from the bike-strewn streets of China, where dockless bikes have become an investment craze, Ofo is used to ruthless competitio­n.

RAZOR

Headquarte­rs: Cerritos (Los Angeles County)

Funding: Unknown

Auto companies are worried that ride-hailing might make it unnecessar­y for people to own their own cars. That’s a worry for Razor, which has been making scooters since 2000.

RIDECELL

Headquarte­rs: San Francisco Funding: $45.8 million Makes software for fleet rentals, shared rides and autonomous vehicles. AAA’s Gig Car Share service in Oakland and Berkeley is a customer.

SCOOT

Headquarte­rs: San Francisco Funding: $4.5 million

Rents fleets of park-anywhere electric mopeds in S.F. It calls its proposed standing electric scooters “mini-Scoots,” and argues that it’s used to managing app-rented vehicles. Its fleet-maintenanc­e workers are employees, not contractor­s, who earn at least $60,000 a year.

SKIP

Headquarte­rs: San Francisco Funding: $31 million

Proposes a 16-person “community advisory board” and will fund a “calmed shared streets” initiative with $500,000, plus donate $500,000 for mechanics training. Already has a permitted scooter service in Washington.

SPIN

Headquarte­rs: San Francisco Funding: $8 million

Operations workers make $22 to $24 an hour, and the company says it tries to hire locally.

USCOOTERS

Headquarte­rs: El Paso, Texas Funding: Unknown

This scooter manufactur­er, known for its folding models, says it has sold more than 100,000 worldwide.

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