Bird: Laid Off 406 of 1,387 Staff in March 2020

Category: mobility
Pandemic-layoff role: Deepest-cut ranking company
Last updated: 2026-09-29

Pandemic-role map

Reader shorthand: scooter-rental company that laid off 406 of its 1,387 employees in March 2020, went public in 2021, restated the revenue it had reported for the pandemic years and filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
What Bird did for customers: rented shared electric scooters by the ride through an app, in cities in the United States and Europe.
What broke in the pandemic: city trips stopped, and Bird paused service in many markets.
Relief role: not a lender or relief intermediary; no Bird borrower appears in SBA's PPP loan data.

Before the pandemic

Bird Rides, founded by Travis VanderZanden, was a venture-backed private company in 2019. Its amended 2021 annual report puts 2019 revenue at $150.5 million and the 2019 net loss at $387.5 million.

What the pandemic changed

On March 27, 2020, Bird laid off about 30% of its staff, 406 of 1,387 employees, TechCrunch reported; the company confirmed the numbers. "As you know, we've had to pause many markets around the world and drastically cut spending," VanderZanden wrote to staff. He said departing employees would get severance pay, extended health insurance and "an extended window to exercise options." Bird's 2021 registration statement says it "temporarily paused operations throughout Europe and in several cities in the United States."

Rides fell 54% in 2020, the same filing reports. By then Bird had changed how its scooters were run. It had relied on gig workers and its own service centers to charge and repair them; it now used third-party logistics operators it calls Fleet Managers, paid a percentage of net revenue.

Revenue, twice

As first reported, 2020 sharing revenue fell $60.5 million, or 43.1%, and total revenue fell $55.9 million, or 37.2%. In November 2022 Bird restated its 2020 and 2021 accounts. Its business systems had recorded revenue on rides "for which collectability was not probable": riders whose prepaid "wallet" balances could not cover the fare. The restated 2020 revenue is $90.1 million. The net loss for 2020 was $208.7 million.

After the first shock

Bird went public on November 4, 2021 by merging with Switchback II, a blank-check company. Revenue grew to $190.5 million in 2021 and $244.7 million in 2022, and losses stayed large: $214.9 million in 2021 and $358.7 million in 2022. The annual report for 2022, signed in March 2023 by chief executive Shane Torchiana, warned of "substantial doubt" about Bird's ability to continue as a going concern. In September 2023 Bird bought Spin, a rival scooter operator, from the German company Tier Mobility. On December 20, 2023, Bird Global and some of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, with $25 million of debtor-in-possession financing from MidCap Financial and its second-lien lenders. The New York Stock Exchange filed to delist its shares the next day.

Where the company is now

Bird announced on April 5, 2024 that it had emerged from Chapter 11 through the sale of its assets to a newly organized private parent, Third Lane Mobility Inc., which holds the Bird and Spin brands.

Bird Profile: Pandemic Layoffs, Business Model, and Current Status