Lyft has formally entered the bike-sharing arena. The company today announced that it has acquired Motivate, the largest bike-sharing company in the United States. Motivate’s existing contracts include Citi Bike in New York City, Ford’s GoBike program in San Francisco, Blue Bikes in the Boston metro area and Divvy in Chicago among other cities. The terms of the deal have not been revealed by Lyft but previous reports have suggested that a deal between Lyft and Motivate could be worth around $250 million.
Lyft is acquiring Motivate’s technology and corporate functions which include its aforementioned city contracts. Motivate’s bike maintenance and servicing operations will remain a standalone business under the Motivate banner and it will continue to support the bike-share systems across North America.
Lyft mentions on its blog that 80 percent of the bike-share trips in the United States last year were on systems operated by Motivate. It goes to show that bike-sharing is a powerful urban transportation option and Lyft says that it will revolutionize urban transportation with Motivate and put bike-share systems across the country “on a path toward growth and innovation.”
“Bringing together Lyft and Motivate will accelerate our collaboration with cities and deliver even better experiences to our passengers and riders,” said John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft.