We are officially back to where it all started: Purdue University!
Veo has returned home to bike-friendly West Lafayette with a mixed fleet of 500 bikes and scooters. Veo was founded by Purdue graduates Candice Xie and Edwin Tan in 2017 with a mission to make clean transportation accessible to all.
Homecoming celebration
The community came together to celebrate Veo’s launch on April 20th, where Xie and Tan presented Purdue President Mung Chiang with a custom golden scooter to commemorate Veo’s launch on campus.
“Veo is a shining example of how a world-class education at Purdue prepares graduates to become innovators and industry leaders,” said Purdue President Mung Chiang. “Every time a member of our community gets on a Veo, they will be using a sustainable transportation system that exemplifies Purdue innovation in action. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Veo home.” 
“Purdue’s culture of entrepreneurship and innovation provided us with the foundation to launch Veo six years ago on campus,” said Edwin Tan, Veo’s president, who earned a master’s degree from the School of Mechanical Engineering. “We have now scaled to 50-plus cities nationwide, advancing our mission to make cities more livable by creating clean, accessible transportation for everyone. Purdue and West Lafayette fit perfectly into this vision, with strong ridership demand and great bike infrastructure. It’s an honor to bring our product back to the campus that played such an important role in our success.” 
“As students, Edwin and I identified a need to make sustainable travel affordable and convenient – especially in bike-friendly communities like West Lafayette,” said Xie, Veo’s CEO, who received a bachelor’s degree from Purdue’s School of Management (now the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business). “Purdue provided the academic rigor and entrepreneurship resources to get us started. My time at Purdue inspired me to think differently, creatively and ambitiously. It encouraged me not to wait but to create opportunities and eventually led me to start Veo. We are thrilled to launch here and serve the community where it all began.” 
“In 2017, Purdue Foundry identified Veo as a promising young startup with exceptional Purdue alumni founders and a vision for the future,” said Brian Edelman, president of the Purdue Research Foundation. “The Foundry is proud to see that Veo’s strong business model is scaling successfully while having a positive impact on society.” 
Veo founders Candice Xie and Edwin Tan present golden scooter to Purdue President Mung Chiang 
From startup to scaling across the nation
Xie and Tan started Veo in 2017 with a business plan and big aspirations.
The co-founders credit the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator on campus, for setting them up for success. The Foundry’s Entrepreneurs-In-Residence program helped them come up with a business plan and provided valuable advice. After incubating their company at the Foundry, Xie and Tan did a small-scale pilot program with their teal-colored shared bikes around the city of West Lafayette. Their bikes quickly became a popular way to get around Purdue and the bike-friendly community of West Lafayette.
Veo now operates in over 50 markets across North America with fleets of shared electric bikes and scooters it designs and manufactures in-house. With a focus on deliberate and responsible growth, Veo in 2020 became the industry’s first profitable micromobility company. Recognized as a Forbes Best Startup Employer, the company now has over 200 employees and continues to grow as it deploys new vehicle types and enters new markets across North America.
Veo’s diverse portfolio of markets includes New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, D.C., as well as universities including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University, Texas A&M University and Rutgers University.