How e-scooter pioneer Neuron Mobility left South-east Asia and found its sweet spot

NEURON Mobility, an early entrant to the e-scooter sharing business, has had a tumultuous couple of years.

The startup was on the rise in 2018 amid a global boom in the sharing economy. It had built its own scooter aimed at solving many teething issues in the nascent business. But soon, its days of fast regional growth came to a halt.

A spate of e-scooter accidents and intense public flak pushed regulators in South-east Asia to hurriedly clamp down on the micromobility sector. Neuron was banished from the pavements of its home country of Singapore in 2019, and left South-east Asia completely after also exiting Malaysia and Thailand.