Swedish micromobility company Voi Technology has announced several changes to its leadership teams in the UK and at its head office in Stockholm.
Jack Samler joins as new UK and Ireland general manager, Matthew Pencharz as its new head of policy for UK, Ireland and Benelux, and Anna Gustavsson as its new vice president of product in Stockholm.
Samler will oversee the daily operations and growth of Voi’s UK and Ireland business, taking over from Richard Corbett, who moves into a new global role as vice president of market development, focused on international growth and business development.
Samler joins Voi from Deliveroo, where over the last three years he has held several leadership positions. Most recently, he was the tech company’s UK and Ireland commercial director, running its portfolio of 20,000 independent restaurant partners and leading a team of over 100 people.
Pencharz joins having served as a strategic advisor to companies working in urban sustainability and smart cities over the last five years, including electric bus manufacturer BYD, gas distributor SGN and C40, the cities climate NGO.
Prior to this, the former BBC journalist founded Air Car, a start-up aimed at leveraging Tantalum’s connected vehicle technology to reduce transport air pollution emissions, and served as deputy mayor of London for environment and energy, where he led the Greater London Authority’s work on the proposal for the Ultra-Low Emission Zone.
Gustavsson joins from connected home provider Hive, owned by British Gas and Centrica, where she was was responsible for setting product strategy and roadmap, launched the company’s first subscription-based product, led the end-to-end ownership of all products and oversaw a team of 35.
Fredrik Hjelm, CEO and co-founder of Voi, said: “Thanks to the UK public’s enthusiasm for a greener, low-carbon form of transport, Voi has grown in the UK from a single person in June 2020 to over 200 now.
“After launching our greatest and most exciting e-scooter to date earlier this year, we have some exciting plans ahead and they will be a key part of the next stage of growth for the company.”
Since launching its first UK trial last September, Voi’s e-scooters can currently be found in 18 locations across the country, giving the operator a 60% share of the UK market.
According to Voi, it took six months to reach one million rides in the UK and one month to reach the next million.
Across the company’s European operations, Voi recently reached a 100,000+ daily ride target on one day in mid-April, according to data by third-party analyst Fluctuo – the highest level since late September when ridership peaked at 110,000 rides in one day.
According to Fluctuo data, Voi currently facilitates more than double the number of rides than its nearest competitor, Tier Mobility, which reportedly saw around 47,000 rides taken on 14 April, and around 34,000 taken on 18 April.
The third most popular e-scooter provider, Bolt, saw over 15,000 and 20,000 rides taken on the same dates respectively.
