The mustachioed ride-sharing giant is reportedly close to acquiring bikeshare company Motivate, in a deal said to be worth at least $250m, according to The Information (paywall).
The news comes during boom times for new transit options
Mobility companies — including car manufacturers like GM and Ford and ride hail companies like Uber and Lyft — are all champing at the bit to hit the streets with new transportation options for their consumers. And bikes and scooter startups are riding the new 2-wheel transit wave.
Last month, Lyft reportedly expressed interest in acquiring a permit to operate scooters in San Francisco, Chinese company Meituan-Dianping picked up bike share Mobike for $2.7B and, earlier this year, Uber bought Jump Bikes for $250m.
Lyft could pull ahead of Uber in the bikeshare race
Motivate has a much larger footprint than Jump, currently operating nearly 32k bikes across the US, according to CNET.
As a matter of fact, Motivate backs some of the most well-known US bike-share companies, operating behind the scenes for docked bike companies like Ford’s GoBike and Citi Bike.
If Lyft does acquire Motivate, their next challenge will be to find a way to compete with Jump’s “dock-less” bike program.