Investors want to replicate the massive success of overseas bikesharing companies. Ofo has over 60m users, Mobike has over 100m users. These companies are worth billions and do over 50m trips per day. Helmets, legality, and legislation haven't stopped these companies. Take Uber, they were illegal from the start & were always 'one city council vote away from being squashed' but that never stopped them.

I don't think there's anything similar to overseas bikesharing in US, and I can understand why VCs want to invest.