Connect with us

Published

on

The Dubai skyline.

Umar Shariff Photography

Wheely, a luxury-focused competitor to ride-hailing giant Uber, is launching in Dubai as the company looks to reembark on an international expansion effort that was quashed by Covid in 2020.

The company, founded by Russian-Swiss entrepreneur Anton Chirkunov, told CNBC it will offer rides in the United Arab Emirates city starting Wednesday, catering mainly to wealthy clients.

As part of its Dubai debut, Wheely will start offering users rides in BMW 5 Series cars for the first time, a precursor to adding support for BMW’s i5 electric variant in the future.

That’s a notable step, as the i5 is a cheaper vehicle than luxury electric SUV competitors such as the Mercedes-Benz EQE and the Tesla Model X.

Mercedes’ 2024 EQE EV starts at $79,650 while the 2024 BMW i5 series starts at $66,800.

Wheely didn’t at any point suggest it plans to ditch Mercedes cars anytime soon, but the move provides some insight into how the company is thinking about the electrification of its fleets.

Dubai opportunity

Chirkunov said Wheely is targeting the Dubai market, which it’s been planning on entering since 2021, as it already serves as a hub for wealthy business people emigrating from Europe, as well as young digital nomads.

“European families and entrepreneurs have been moving to Dubai in the last five years,” Chirkunov told CNBC in an interview ahead of the launch. “It is the most requested destination by our guests and our members. It sees the highest immigration of millionaires in the world.”

Wheely’s platform is tailored more toward mass market usage, however, and Chirkunov thinks his platform has an opportunity to stand out. It competes in a similar space to Blacklane, another luxury-focused ride-hailer.

Chirkunov compares his product to more of a luxury product than a general service for consumers. He compares the Wheely brand to the American Express Centurion and Platinum membership credit cards in terms of brand status.

Headquartered in London, Wheely is a startup that offers a car-hailing app similar to Uber, but targeted toward a high net worth clientele. Fares, for example, average around £46 ($57.72) for a 30-minute journey from Mayfair to the City of London.

Prices aren’t the only thing that’s “high-end” about Wheely. The company provides trained chauffeurs who greet customers, collect their bags, and take other measures to make riders feel special.

Users can make specific requests to their chauffeurs on the Wheely app — for example, having a driver collect flowers for a loved one before they get picked up.

Wheely even has its own tailor-made “chauffeur academy” program in place to train up drivers. That program already exists in London, at Syon House, the lavish home of the Duke of Northumberland.

Wheely is now replicating that model in Dubai, too.

Its members-only services — which users can only get access to via invitation or after 15 trips with the app within six months — offers access to more premium tiers, including a first-class service with Mercedes-Benz S-Class vehicles that come with bath towels, and an option to reserve a chauffeur for a whole day.

From Covid crash to global expansion

Wheely is making a renewed international drive in Dubai after several years of turbulence for the company.

Wheely had a tough time when Covid lockdowns came about.

“The pandemic was tough because, unlike, say, Amazon, where order volumes skyrocketed in the pandemic, for us our volumes dropped by 99%,” Chirkunov said.

Since then, however, demand has bounced back from its high-end clientele.

He says the platform recently reached operational profitability everywhere except new markets like Paris and Dubai.

Back in 2020, right before the pandemic, Chirkunov told CNBC in an interview that he was planning on raising $30 million in fresh capital to embark on expansion into the U.S.

Chirkunov, when asked whether Wheely had decided to raise more cash, disclosed that the company discreetly raised an additional sum of money internally from existing shareholders.

The funding, which has not previously been disclosed, amounts to $15 million, and brings Wheely’s total cash raised to date to $43 million.

Wheely’s existing shareholder base includes venture capital firm Concentric and AdFirst.vc, as well as Chirkunov himself.

Wheely plans to expand its Middle East team and chauffeur network to over 1,000 in the next three to five years, the company told CNBC exclusively.

Wheely reported revenues of £22.5 million in its 2021 financial year, according to Companies House filing.

The company, which remains lossmaking at a group level, reported losses of £6.1 million. That was as headcount grew significantly to 221 from 157.

U.S. expansion next

The Middle East isn’t the only stop on Wheely’s global expansion route, though. The startup, which earlier launched services in Paris, now plans to pursue operations in the United States, Wheely’s co-founder and CEO told CNBC.

Chirkunov said that the pandemic scuppered Wheely’s short-term plans to enter the U.S. market, and so Dubai “eclipsed” the U.S. in terms of focus for the firm.

Now, though, he sees an eventual U.S. launch in his sights.

“We have many North American travellers using Wheely, especially on transfers and flights,” Chirkunov said. Wheely’s app enables its chauffeur network to check on updates about the status of travelers’ flights in real time.

“We’re still looking at launching in the U.S. at some point,” Chirkunov added. “The reason we haven’t launched yet is because we’ve been squarely focused on Dubai.”

But eventually, Chirkunov says, “New York will over take London as our top market.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Elon Musk endorses far-right Alternative for Germany party in upcoming election

Published

on

By

Elon Musk endorses far-right Alternative for Germany party in upcoming election

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk gestures behind protective glass during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump, at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a meagdonor and adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, is now seeking to influence Germany’s election, posting an endorsement on X of the country’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

In a post Thursday night, Musk wrote, “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

Musk, who has over 200 million listed followers on the site that he owns, made the comment while sharing a post from far-right influencer, Naomi Seibt, who claimed that Germany’s “presumptive next chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is horrified by the idea that Germany should follow Elon Musk’s and Javier Milei’s example,” referring to the president of Argentina.

Seibt has a history of promoting white nationalist ideology, The Guardian previously reported, and has denied the validity of scientific consensus around climate change, namely that it’s driven by fossil fuel emissions.

In a post on X, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called Musk an “out of touch billionaire running the incoming Trump Administration” who “enthusiastically supports the neo-Nazi party in Germany.”

“The AfD’s mission is to rehabilitate the image of the Nazi movement,” Murphy wrote. He added that one of the party’s leaders has a license plate that’s “an open tribute to Hitler,” and another “described Judaism as the ‘inner enemy’ in Germany.”

Musk and Tesla’s investor relations team didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a center-left Social Democrat, dismissed Musk’s claim that only the far-right party can “save Germany.”

Under Scholz’s leadership, Germany‘s left-wing coalition collapsed in November, and AfD is currently polling in second place ahead of February elections. Throughout Germany, where the AfD has placed highly in state elections, the other parties have generally refused to form coalitions with it. 

According to Pew Research, “AfD has campaigned against weapon deliveries to Ukraine and called for an end to sanctions on Russia,” a view shared by Musk.

Far right parties have also gained ground in the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and elsewhere. Many cheered Trump’s election, which Musk helped finance through $277 million in contributions to the campaign and related Republican causes.

Tesla’s stock is up about 75% since Trump’s victory, surpassing its prior all-time high from 2021 last week.

AfD has reportedly criticized Tesla and its factory outside of Berlin. The party claimed many of Tesla’s thousands of workers there commute in from Poland or Berlin, limiting the economic benefits to the local community in Brandeburg.

The AfD generally views electric vehicles as part of an ideological climate movement, and not good for Germany’s auto industry.

Europe has been a tough market for Tesla this year. According to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, sales of Tesla cars declined 40.9% in November, exceeding the overall 9.5% dip in sales of battery electric vehicles.

Elsewhere in Euopre, Musk endorsed right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and has voiced support for Nigel Farage in the U.K, a populist politician and head of Reform UK. In South America, Musk endorsed and has a friendship with Argentina’s President Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist.

WATCH: Musk’s early influence on government

Surprised how much influence Elon Musk and Trump already have on government: Tenacity's Ben Narasin

Continue Reading

Technology

Bitcoin falls 8% in volatile trade around $93,000 as sell-off intensifies

Published

on

By

Bitcoin falls 8% in volatile trade around ,000 as sell-off intensifies

Omer Taha Cetin | Anadolu | Getty Images

Bitcoin fell sharply on Friday amid broader investor caution toward risk assets.

Bitcoin dipped below the $93,000 mark earlier in the day before trading above that price in volatile trade.

By around 8:26 ET, bitcoin was trading at $93,809.39, according to Coin Metrics, down around 8% from 24 hours before when it was priced above $102,000.

The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high above $108,000 just this week, but has since sold off aggressively.

The Federal Reserve rattled markets in recent days, as it signaled fewer interest rate cuts next year. Equity markets took a hit, filtering through to crypto assets.

The price of bitcoin price has more than doubled this year, supported by a number of factors including the launch of spot exchange-traded funds and the U.S. presidential election of Donald Trump. He has pledged pro-crypto policies and his victory at the polls helped propel bitcoin to its latest record high.

With some markets on edge due to the Fed, some of the steam has come out of assets that have seen big gains this year.

Tesla, which has been another big beneficiary of Trump’s win, continued its post-election slide with shares falling on Friday in premarket trade. Other big names like Nvidia were also lower during the session.

Bitcoin’s fall also dragged down other cryptocurrencies. Ether was down around 12%, and XRP plunged 10% from 24 hours prior, at around 8:27 a.m. ET.

Continue Reading

Technology

Tesla shares drop 5%, continuing to slide as post-election rally loses steam

Published

on

By

Tesla shares drop 5%, continuing to slide as post-election rally loses steam

Tesla electric vehicles are parked in a parking lot at the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg plant. 

Patrick Pleul | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Shares of Tesla continued to slide on Friday, in what appeared to be a case of investors taking profits from the electric car maker’s blistering post-U.S. election rally.

As of around 6:30 a.m. ET, the firm’s shares were down nearly 5% in U.S. premarket trading, extending losses from earlier in the week. On Wednesday, Tesla shares slumped 8% to post their worst day since before Donald Trump’s presidential election victory in November.

Trump’s win prompted a sharp rally in Tesla shares, as investors increased their bets that the electric vehicle firm would benefit thanks to its CEO Elon Musk’s close ties to the president-elect. The stock is still up around 65% since Nov. 5’s market close — the night of the U.S. presidential vote.

Musk was appointed by Trump to co-lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, also referred to as “DOGE.” The proposed presidential advisory commission’s acronym shares the same name as the internet meme that inspired so-called “memecoin” cryptocurrency, dogecoin.

Dogecoin briefly shot up in price after the body’s creation.

Musk was a major backer of Trump during the Republican’s election run, pouring in $277 million primarily into his campaign effort, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Musk is the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $439.4 billion, according to Forbes data.

Last month, Bloomberg News reported Trump’s transition team was planning to pursue a federal framework for regulating self-driving vehicles.

Tesla and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on the report.

If true, the move would offer a major boost to Musk’s EV firm. Tesla is staking its future on the idea of rolling out mass fleets of autonomous vehicles, known as “robotaxi” services. At the firm’s “We Robot” event in October, Musk unveiled the firm’s Cybercab self-driving concept car.

Tesla has yet to deliver on Musk’s promise of offering truly autonomous vehicles. Tesla’s Autopilot and paid “Full Self-Driving” services still require a human behind the wheel to supervise the system’s actions and take over if needed.

In other Tesla-related news, data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association on Thursday showed sales of Tesla cars declined 40.9% in November, exceeding the overall 9.5% dip in sales of battery electric cars (BEVs) in the bloc.

Separately, Tesla also on Friday said it was recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles in the U.S. due to an issue with its tire pressure monitoring system. Software-related recalls aren’t typically a huge issue for Tesla, however, as it can issue “over-the-air” updates to fix these issues.

Continue Reading

Trending