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Bird’s U.K. Chief Departs After Scooters Remain Banned in U.K.

E-scooter startup Bird Rides has lost its U.K. and Ireland boss.

Bird’s U.K. Chief Departs After Scooters Remain Banned in U.K.
A Bird Rides Inc. shared electric scooter stands on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, U.S. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- E-scooter startup Bird Rides Inc. has lost its U.K. and Ireland boss, Richard Corbett, who left the company this week after two years at the helm.

Since launching in London in 2018, the venture capital-backed startup has struggled to deploy its scooter-rental business as a result of tight regulation, which Corbett says was made impossible to overcome while lawmakers focused on Brexit.

“It’s not for a lack of government wanting to change the law, but the political climate,” Corbett said in an interview. “There’s nothing more I think I can do personally to make things move quicker.”

A spokesman for Bird in the U.K. declined to comment.

Valued at $2.5 billion, Bird is one of the world’s largest micromobility startups. But like all of its rivals, including Lime, it’s never been able to roll out a widespread scooter service in Britain due to local laws that effectively ban the vehicles from roads. Scooters are classed as motor vehicles, or “powered transporters” -- subject to tax, driver licenses and insurance -- and the U.K’s Highways Act of 1835 stipulates that footpaths must be for the sole use of pedestrians.

Despite being banned in the U.K., the startup still has a small office based in London. The company launched a version of its product in the city in 2018, but only on private land. Several dozen of its scooters were made available for journeys along a predetermined route of about 1.2 miles between the Stratford rail station in East London, and the technology-focused co-working campus Here East, where Bird’s London office is based. The scooters are still in active use.

On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Bird was in talks to buy its European rival Circ. The paper added that under terms discussed, the American startup could merge its operations on the continent with those of Berlin-based Circ. It didn’t say where it got the information and Bloomberg has been unable to independently confirm the facts as reported.

Before joining Bird, Corbett spent four years as chief executive officer of Eyetease, which launched a taxi-top video advertising system for London’s iconic black cabs in 2014. “It took me four years to change regulations at my last company and swore to myself I wouldn’t do it again, but then I found myself back in that position,” he said.

After taking “six months to a year off,” he added that he’d like to focus on “something entrepreneurial.“

To contact the reporter on this story: Nate Lanxon in London at nlanxon@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz

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