Lyft had been in talks with Motivate – the company behind New York City’s Citi Bike rental program – and today, that deal was announced. However, neither Lyft nor Motivate announced how much the deal was worth, but the talks were believed to be centered around a $250 million price tag in June.
With this acquisition, Lyft is joining many other ride-sharing companies that are getting into the bike-rental business as well. This includes Lyft’s main competitor, Uber, who bought Jump Bikes back in April. Jump Bikes is an electric-bike startup, whereas Motivate offers regular bikes to ride around in the city – to relieve congestion on the roads. Motivate has been using traditional bikes that have docking stations around the city, and it has agreements with city officials in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and a few others, which will be included in this deal with Lyft. This is going to be a big deal for Lyft, as it will be able to expand its business into more forms of transportation, instead of just vehicles to get from point A to point B.
Lyft is still a private company, but it is looking to go public in the next few years – like its main competitor Uber – and picking up Motivate could help get them there sooner. As this is going to allow Lyft to bring in more revenue. Since bike-rentals don’t require drivers to get customers from one place to another like a vehicle would, Lyft would be able to make more profit off of these bikes. Now there is still maintenance involved here, which Lyft says that Motivate’s bike maintenance arm will continue to operate as a standalone company, and is not part of this deal. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see that company begin to work on more bikes instead of Motivate-owned bikes, like it does currently.