A new season for unu

The start-up unu has a new headquarters and a new sales concept for the new season. Having successfully launched the first electric scooter in Germany in July 2014 the firm’s fifteen employees and the two founders, Elias Atahi und Pascal Blum, re-located in March 2015 to the Factory Berlin start-up campus in the nation’s capital. At the same time a new sales and marketing concept is being introduced. On time for the start of the spring season there will be unu Pioneers and unu Experts on hand in various urban centres to assist current and future unu riders with regard to test drives and service questions.

“At unu we believe that everyone should have the means of experiencing the full potential of their city. And that’s why our aim has been to offer a mobility solution that connects people with the urban environment,” says Elias Atahi, one of the two founders. In order to achieve this the start-up will now focus on selected unu Cities. With the deployment of unu Pioneers there will be local presence to arrange test drives for potential customers and deal on-the-spot with other matters. The unu Experts will be the contact persons with regard to local service in cooperation with the firm Bosch.

“Customer satisfaction is our first priority,“ Atahi continues. “We don’t want to make sales in regions where we’re unable to provide the optimal service infrastructure.” As the 2015 season opens, unu is active in 25 cities in Germany and the goal is to be present in 200 locations worldwide by the end of the year. “We’ll be concentrating on urban regions, but on a global basis,” says Co-founder Pascal Blum. “Every day we are working an expansion of our list of cities.” Those unu riders resident outside the designated cities will nevertheless still have access to unu service.

Since the 1st of March 2015 the fifteen-strong unu crew is co-located in the Factory Berlin complex, a centre for start-up enterprises which is also the home of Twitter, SoundCloud and Edition F. The move to the German capital brings the founders, both fascinated by metropolitan life and mobility, closer to their goal of optimizing access to the urban experience. “We love cities. It’s exciting to witness the scope of urban innovation and culture,” says Blum.

Both of the founders studied separately in Asia, Atahi specializing in electrical engineering and information technology while Blum’s focus was on economics and politics. Both were hugely impressed by their experience of mega-cities. It was the rapid pace of change they saw in Singapore and Shanghai that inspired them after completing their degrees to realize a dream they shared – to be part of shaping the best possible urban experience. “Although we had concentrated on very different disciplines we recognized a common ambition. We wanted to make a difference.” The result of this dedication was the development in 2014 of the electrically-powered motor-scooter. By July of that year several hundred unu scooters had been sold. Following the move to Berlin the focus is now on international expansion and the development of the next product generation.