Lyft Buys Company Behind Citi Bike, Announces Lyft Bikes

0 0 Julius Choudhury July 3, 2018 Edit this post

Lyft bought the company behind Citi Bike. Snow covered Citi bikes sit idle in Brooklyn, New York on March 14, 2017. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

By Alex Perry, International Business Times

Ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft have already grown to dominate urban commuting by car. On Monday, Lyft revealed it would throw its hat into another ring: Bike-sharing.

Lyft announced Monday it had acquired Motivate, a nationwide ringleader for the growing bike-sharing industry. Motivate operates differently branded, subscription-based bike rental services around the United States, such as New York’s Citi Bike and Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare.

According to Lyft’s press release, the business will be renamed Lyft Bikes.

Though Lyft did not disclose the exact number, the purchase could have been worth around $250 million, according to the New York Times. Lyft’s acquisition of Motivate will grant the ride-sharing giant access to Motivate’s technological infrastructure and business dealings, like its contracts with individual cities. Motivate’s bike maintenance operation will split out into an independent business, but will still service Lyft Bikes bicycles.

Lyft tied the acquisition to its recent Green Cities Initiative, a company effort to at least nominally support ecologically friendly transport. From a business perspective, it means Lyft will now profit off of one of the modes of transport people might want to use instead of Lyft car rides. According to the press release, Lyft will “pursue growth and innovation” in Motivate’s existing markets.
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Uber, Lyft’s biggest competitor, bought the bike-sharing service JUMP for close to $200 million back in April and renamed it Uber Bike. That service operates in six cities around the U.S., according to Uber’s website.

A Lyft representative told International Business Times that Lyft will integrate bike-sharing into its apps at a later date.

“Together, we believe that integrating our services in partnership with the public sector will transform the urban transportation landscape, increase bike ridership, and make our cities better,” Motivate Executive Chairman Steve Koch said in Lyft’s press release.