Electric scooter and moped hire startup Bird Rides Inc. today revealed that it has raised $275 million in new funding on a $2.5 billion valuation for ongoing vehicle research and development in hopes of getting closer to profitability.

The Series D round, led by CDPQ and Sequoia Capital was announced by Bird Chief Executive Officer and Founder Travis VanderZanden at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in San Francisco today.

Founded in 2017, Bird has quickly emerged as a major player in the dockless electric scooter and moped hire space that complements ride-hailing services. The company started with e-scooters before expanding into mopeds in June.

In efforts to expand its business, Bird has offered various additional services over its two years including offering franchise opportunities. Bird Platform allows independent operators to start their own fleet of e-scooters with Bird providing support services and naturally the e-scooters as well. In May it announced that it was also selling its e-scooters directly to the public, though they don’t come cheap, starting at $1,299.

Scale is key in the highly competitive market that includes venture capital-backed rival LimeBike Inc. and offerings from Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. Bird acquired e-scooter sharing startup Scoot Networks Inc. in June for an undisclosed sum, giving it access to both Scoot’s technology and existing markets, most notable among them San Francisco.

Both Bird and rival Lime have also been the subject of acquisition rumors as well, with Uber said to have held talks with both in December.

Moving forward, Bird sees itself shifting from rapid and expensive growth to “creating industry-leading positive unit economics and building a sustainable business.” Put more simply, “unit economics” is the return per e-scooter and moped.

“Nearly a year ago, we recognized that the world was changing,” VanderZanden said in a statement. “Gone are the days when top-line growth was the leading KPI for emerging companies. Positive unit economics is the new goal line.

That’s why, he said, the company “pivoted from growth to unit economics as the top priority for the company. Now with the best unit economics in the industry, new Bird investors such as CDPQ see that we are paving the road for a long term sustainable and healthy business.”

Including the new round, Bird has raised $548 million to date. Previous investors include Greycroft, Simon Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Hinge Capital, Upfront Ventures, Sound Ventures, CRV, Accel and Tusk Ventures.

Image: Bird