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Lyft agrees to acquire core assets of bike sharing firm Motivate for $250M
Ride-hailing startup Lyft Inc. is riding into the bike sharing market in a big way, agreeing to acquire the core assets of Motivate International Inc., the largest operator in North America.
The price of the acquisition wasn’t disclosed, but the New York Times reported that a figure of $250 million has been previously tied to the deal.
Founded in 2009 and one of the first in the market, Motivate operates across multiple cities in the U.S. under various names specific to its location, including Citi Bike in New York, Ford GoBike in the San Francisco Bay area, Divvy in Chicago, Blue Bikes in the Boston metro area, Capital Bikeshare in the Washington, D.C. metro area, BIKETOWN in Portland, CoGo in Columbus, Ohio, and Nice Ride in Minneapolis.
Under the deal, Lyft will acquire Motivate’s technology and corporate functions, including its city contracts — that is, its bike-sharing network. The remainder of Motivate Lyft hasn’t acquired. The bike maintenance and servicing operations will be contracted to Lyft to support its former bike-sharing network. After the deal is completed, Lyft intends to unify the network under the name of Lyft Bikes.
Despite claiming to have an 80 percent share of the market already, Lyft has ambitious plans to expand the network going forward. It said that “we will invest to establish bike offerings in our major markets and pursue growth and innovation in the markets where Motivate currently operates.”
The acquisition sees Lyft compete directly with archrival Uber Technologies Inc., which also entered the bike-sharing market when it acquired Jump Bikes Inc. for an estimated $200 million in April. While smaller than Motivate, Jump offers bikes with a battery-powered “pedal assist” mechanism to make rides smoother, making them partially electrically operated.
Interest in environmentally friendly short-form transport has surged in recent times. Electric scooter companies Bird Rides Inc. and LimeBike Inc. both have raised serious venture capital, the latter backed by Alphabet Inc. With Uber and Lyft both now the largest owners of the bike-sharing market, both Bird and Lime could be next on the radar for potential acquisition.
Photo: Motivate
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