Lawrence Leuschner

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Lawrence Leuschner
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Born1982
Bavaria, Germany
NationalityGerman
CitizenshipGermany
OccupationEntrepreneur

Lawrence Leuschner is a German, Entrepreneurship, committed to fighting climate change through building companies with sustainable visions. He is currently Co-Founder and CEO of one of Europe's leading Micromobility provider TIER Mobility, an electric scooter and moped sharing company. Previously, from 2004 to 2017, Leuschner was the Co-Founder, and CEO, of ReBuy (formerly Trade-a-game), one of Europe's largest online marketplace for used electronics. Leuschner also founded Blue Impact in 2020, a Venture Capital and Private Equity fund, which supports startups that have the vision to tackle real challenges and help mitigate climate change, improve public health, strengthen democracy, promote holistic nutrition and sustainable transportation.[1]

Early Life and career

Lawrence Leuschner, born in 1982, grew up in Bavaria, Germany, as the son of a Syrian immigrant, who went from a mechanic at a gas station to owning a gas station and later running a car and truck rental company. At age 6, Leuschner relocated to a town near Frankfurt, Germany called Hofheim, Hesse with his mother. His step-father ran an import-export business and Leuschner starting selling the discarded goods of this step-fathers business at a local flea market to give them a second life.[1] [2]

At age 17, after returning from his exchange program in the U.S., Leuschner continued selling used goods. eBay was extremely popular at the time and quickly became Leuschner's platform of choice to sell used goods he had previously sold at the local flea market. After ten years of selling second-hand goods, on the flea market and then eBay, Leuschner started Trade-a-game, an online company selling second-hand, video games with a couple of friends.[1] [2][3]

Trade-a-game was founded in 2004, its business strategy drawn up in his parents' basement, and investor calls were made while Leuschner was still attending the German Armed Forces (2003-2004). Leuschner decided to drop out of school to entirely focus on Trade-a-game's business. [1]

According to Leuschner, it was in 2009 that Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" marked a turning point and solidified Leuschner's calling to have a positive impact as an entrepreneur. Leuschner took Al Gore's recommendation of reduce, reuse and recycle to heart and called for Trade-a-game to sell more than just used video games. [4] He wanted to create the most sustainable marketplace for all pre-owned electronics. In 2011, Trade-a-game GmbH was officially renamed ReBuy and expanded into a marketplace for additional used media and technology such as books, C.D.s, DVDs and more. [1][5][3]

ReBuy

Under Leuschner's leadership, ReBuy maintained its position as one of Europe's largest online marketplace for used electronics with around four million customers and extended the Product lifecycle of approximately 100 million products through repairs and refurbishments.[6] It was funded by various European venture capital funds such as Iris Capital and Capnamic.[7][8] After more than fifteen years as CEO of Trade-a-game and ReBuy, Leuschner decided to take a sabbatical in 2017. ReBuy was at the time profitable, employing more than 600 people, and generating sales of more than 100 million euros per year. [6]

Leuschner's sabbatical, took him on a world surf trip with his old van, travelling through South and Central America, where he was confronted with the effects of climate change. He ended his sabbatical in San Diego, California, from where he returned to Germany with the idea of starting TIER Mobility, a sustainable, micro-mobility sharing provider. [2][1]

TIER

In October 2018, Leuschner, Matthias Laug, and Julian Blessin founded the Berlin-based, electric scooter sharing provider TIER Mobility. He has since then been CEO of the company, which is now active in more than 75 cities in 10 countries. [9] TIER currently employs around 500 people. [10]According to Leuschner, he was drawn to getting involved in the e-mobility space as he believes it to be one of the biggest opportunities to stop climate change.[4]

Through its platform and focus on operational excellence, TIER allows for the integration of external micro-mobility assets, and participation in strategic partnerships with public transportation such as BVG and MVG, and other reputable mobility providers such as SIXT, WHIM, Citymapper, and HSL.[11][12]

Leuschner helped TIER raise a total of €32 million in its May 2019, Series A round from venture capital funds Northzone, White Star Capital, Point Nine, Speedinvest and Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg.[13][14] This was followed by a Series B round in October 2019 for $60 million, led by Mubadala Capital and Goodwater Capital, and again followed up by a Series B round extension in February 2020, amounting to over $100 million in funding. Another extension came in June 2020 with the most recent total capital raised totalling to $158 million. Additional funding was provided by Moscow's RTP Global, London's Novator and an unnamed U.S. debt fund. [15][14]

TIER has clocked in over 25 million rides to date, surpassing the 1 million rides milestone faster than any e-scooter provide and at the fraction of the capital of the competition. TIER also achieved the milestones of 2, and 3 million rides faster than any e-scooter provider, and became the first European provider to surpass 10 million rides; less than one year since start of business operations.[14][16]

In November 2019, at the Slush (event) Future of Transportation' in Helsinki, CEO Lawrence Leuschner pledged TIER's commitment to being Carbon neutrality from January 2020 onwards. TIER has since fulfilled its promise and is the first fully Climate neutral micro-mobility company.[17]

Philanthropic work

In July 2020, Lawrence Leuschner pledged to donate 100% of any exit proceeds coming from his TIER Mobility shares to Blue Impact. Blue Impact is Leuschner’s personal investment vehicle for backing and supporting the next generation of impact entrepreneurs looking to realise their vision for a better future. Blue Impact backs and funds startups, which fight climate change, improve public health, democracy, nutrition, and transportation. The pledges are committed via Founders Pledge, a reputable organisation for entrepreneurs who donate a portion of their personal proceeds on liquidity to non-profits of their choice.[18] The full 100% will be donated when Leuschner exits TIER and liquidates his shares. The timing of this is not confirmed nor planned. The evergreen structure of the vehicle ensures that all proceeds will be re-deployed back into the fund with no payouts permitted for Leuschner’s personal wealth.[19][20]

In the media

  

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Lawrence Leuschner". crunchbase.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "TIER-Gründer: Der Kosmos von Unternehmer Lawrence Leuschner". bild.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "From flea markets to an online garage sale". www.thelocal.de. Retrieved 2020-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Tier Mobility CEO on electric scooter boom: 'I'm very surprised at the speed we are going'". VentureBeat. 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  5. ↑ "reBuy". Cleverism. 2016-08-30. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "ReBuy-Gründer Lawrence Leuschner steigt aus". Gründerszene Magazin (in Deutsch). 2017-11-06. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  7. ↑ "Rebuy", Wikipedia (in Deutsch), 2020-09-02, retrieved 2020-09-21
  8. ↑ "Rebuy – Capnamic Ventures". capnamic.com. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  9. ↑ "Where to find us – TIER". Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  10. ↑ Zeitung, Berliner. "Die Zeit des privaten Autos in Städten ist abgelaufen". Berliner Zeitung (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  11. ↑ "SIXT SE - Investor Relations". about.sixt.com. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  12. ↑ "Popular TIER electric scooters now available on Whim". Whim. 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  13. ↑ "Tier, the Berlin-based scooter rental startup, raises €25M as European e-scooter market heats up". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Berlin's Tier Mobility scoops up $60M as its scooter-based transportation service passes 10M rides". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  15. ↑ "Tier Mobility, the European e-scooter rentals startup, adds another ~$40M to its Series B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  16. ↑ "Tier, the Berlin-based e-scooter rental startup, unveils new hardware and announces it's reached 2M rides". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  17. ↑ "TIER Mobility". ClimatePartner. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  18. ↑ "Home". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  19. ↑ Frühstücksfernsehen - 45 Millionen Euro zu verschenken (in Deutsch), 2020-07-17, retrieved 2020-10-01
  20. ↑ "Dieser Mann verschenkt 45 Millionen Euro: Wieso macht er so was?". bild.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2020-10-01.

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