LINK Türkiye (Superpedestrian)

What did it do?

LINK was the shared e-scooter brand of Superpedestrian, founded in the US in 2012 by Assaf Biderman. It launched in Istanbul in December 2021 and soon expanded to Ankara and Izmir. As of January 2022 it ran more than 4,200 scooters across the three cities, around 2,500 of them in 12 districts of Istanbul.

Why did it shut down?

On 26 January 2023 Istanbul's transport coordination board, UKOME, approved Superpedestrian Turkey's request to cancel its permit for 2,459 scooters. According to Medyascope and Hürriyet Daily News, the company had decided to halt operations to comply with an instruction from Turkey's Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) and avoid further penalties for breaching the rules. No separate announcement could be found on the fate of the fleets in Ankara and Izmir. The parent company also ran into financial trouble that year; according to TechCrunch, Superpedestrian shut down its US operations on 31 December 2023 and put its European business up for sale. Alongside tightening data and municipal regulation, the parent company's dwindling capital may also have played a part in the withdrawal from Turkey.

The story

Superpedestrian was founded in the US in 2012 by Assaf Biderman and grew into a micromobility company known for software that could diagnose its own faults. Its shared scooter brand, LINK, launched in Istanbul in December 2021. Charging 1.99 TL to unlock and 1.19 TL per minute, the app joined its rivals with scooters unlocked by QR code. According to Webrazzi in January 2022, within a few weeks LINK had also opened in Ankara and Izmir: more than 4,200 scooters were on the streets in total, 2,500 across 12 districts of Istanbul, 900 in Izmir and 800 in Ankara.

Immediately after its entry into Turkey, the road ahead for the parent company looked clear. In February 2022 Superpedestrian raised a $125 million Series C led by Jefferies, Antara Capital, Sony Innovation Fund and FM Capital; according to Webrazzi, total investment had passed $260 million. At the time the company operated in 55 cities across 10 countries.

The Turkish venture, however, hit a regulatory wall a year later. On 26 January 2023 a meeting of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's UKOME transport board considered cancelling the permits of three scooter companies. According to Medyascope, Superpedestrian Turkey Ulaşım Teknoloji A.Ş. had decided to halt operations in order to comply with an instruction from the Personal Data Protection Authority and avoid further penalties, and had asked for its permit for 2,459 scooters to be cancelled. At the same meeting the permits of the At'la Git brand were also cancelled, on the grounds of supply problems. No separate closure announcement was made for the fleets in Ankara and Izmir.

The parent company did not last much longer. In December 2023 TechCrunch reported that Superpedestrian would shut down its US shared scooter operation on 31 December and was looking for a buyer for its European business. One executive said even investors had been putting money in to keep the company afloat. The European business was transferred to a company called SURF in 2024.

LINK's Turkish story shows how decisive regulatory compliance is for a service that collects location data and operates under municipal permits. The brand arrived with strong backing but withdrew from Turkey's largest market within two years, and shortly afterwards the parent company closed its doors.

Lessons for founders

• In a service that collects location data, sort out compliance with data protection law before launch.
• In a business that depends on municipal permits, regulatory risk can bite faster than market risk.
• When a global parent company struggles, new and small markets are usually the first to be sacrificed.

Sources

1. E-scooter rental service LINK launches in Istanbul (Webrazzi, 2021-12-20)
2. LINK, now available in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, operates more than 4,000 e-scooters (Webrazzi, 2022-01-31)
3. Three e-scooter companies withdraw from the market in Istanbul (Medyascope, 2023-01-26)
4. Three e-scooter companies withdraw from market in Istanbul (Hürriyet Daily News, 2023-01-28)
5. Scooter startup Superpedestrian shutting down US operations, explores sale of Europe business (TechCrunch, 2023-12-15)
6. ZEUS Mobility Acquires Superpedestrian Europe (Micromobility.io, 2026-03-02)

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