Rydes raises €3.5M to bring corporate mobility platform to U.S.

Berlin-based startup Rydes has announced a €3.5 million seed round, which will go toward developing its corporate mobility budget platform and expanding into markets outside of Germany, including the United States.

The investment was led by Assembly Ventures and Rethink Ventures with participation from Futury Capital and business angel Jens Krueger, chief product architect at system software vendor Workday.

Rydes replaces traditional company cars with an all-in-one mobility budget platform. Companies provide employees a monthly budget they can use via the Rydes app to submit costs for ride hailing, car or bike rentals, public transport or fuel charge cards for their own vehicle.

Fully automated integration into the company’s human resources, payroll and tax systems saves companies administrative effort, time and money. Additionally, Rydes automatically offsets the resulting carbon footprint for companies via certified climate protection projects.

“If you're seeking to attract and keep driven talent, you will need to offer attractive and flexible mobility solutions. Rydes is the first corporate mobility budget platform to meet these requirements,” said René Braun, co-founder and CEO of Rydes. “The completion of our seed funding round is a major step on our mission towards becoming the go-to destination for all employee mobility needs and providing businesses with an attractive, straightforward platform solution.”

The example of Europe’s steps to promote multi-modal mobility and incentivize its use to cope with climate change implications provides lessons to other regions, said Jessica Robinson, a partner at Assembly Ventures.

“Rydes is tackling this opportunity with an extremely smart approach,” Robinson said. “Their ability to capture detailed mobility, tax and carbon footprint reporting data in real time and provide optimized mobility options of individuals is a game changer.”

Founded in 2018, Rydes took part in the Lufthansa Innovation Hub before it was spun off in 2021. Before that, Lufthansa used the app to reward travelers for using public transport services.