Today, Oliver interviews Erdem Ovacik, CEO of Donkey Republic, the firstshared micromobility player to go public globally. Donkey Republic islisted on the Nasdaq First North exchange in the Nordics. It’s a greatdiscussion about how the market has evolved, and why they see increasinglytight cooperation with governments being the next phase of shared marketdevelopments.Specifically, they dig into:- the backstory of Donkey, including where the name came from and thedevelopment of the bikeshare market in Europe- Donkey’s unique approach of being both an operator and SaaS business andthe economics of the varying parts of the business.- Why they’ve pursued a ‘virtual dock’ solution rather than just straightfree-float and what that’s enabled them as a business.- Why they see the growth of the business being in publicly funded bikeshare systems in the EU.- How their valuation compares to other companies in the shared space, andwhat the reception of investors has been like.- what the listing has provided them in terms of options and what the costshave been___________________Thanks to our sponsor for the episode, *Ubiq, who is making shared mobilityprofitable with* data-driven services to automate operations and ensurevehicles are in the right place, at the right time, to meet demand. Ubiq’scustomers have increased revenue by 20% while also decreasing operationalcosts.Ubiq offers services including *Automated Rebalancing* and *Charging as aService* (ChaaS), using the *power of the crowd to exploit the fullpotential fleets*. The StreetCrowd also service matches vehicles requiringrepositioning, or charging with crowd users, *allowing shared mobilityproviders to automate operations*.Ubiq is also *increasing the efficiency of ops teams*, by helping identifyunderutilized vehicles. With its plug-in forecasting models one can easilysee where improvements can be made. Ubiq’s systems are plug and play andyou can get started right away. Check them out at Ubiq.ai._________________The next Micromobility America conference is now scheduled for the 23rd ofSeptember. It’ll be in Pier 70 in San Francisco and have more than 50 topspeakers from the industry, more than 1000 global participants and 500+startups and brands represented. If you love this space and want to findyour tribe here, head to micromobility.io to find out more details.