TOP STORIES 🔥

 💶 Lyft acquires FREENOW

Lyft has acquired FREENOW in a €175m deal.

Back in November 2023, it was Kakao Mobility that was considering an acquisition of FREENOW. Finally, the asking price was deemed too high and talks collapsed. 18 months later, Lyft have swooped in, after steadying their ship (having posted their first full year of net profitability in 2024). The move will allow Lyft to compete with Uber and Bolt in Europe on the VTC side of the business.

What’s more interesting is the shared mobility side of the business.

Between 2021 and 2023, FREENOW actively promoted the integration of shared mobility services but, by late 2023, it appeared to shift its strategy and re-focus on its core taxi and ride-hailing service.

As we know, Lyft has a subsidiary—Lyft Urban Solutions (formerly PBSC)—specializing in station-based bike-sharing systems, primarily targeting B2G markets. However, Lyft does not currently operate as a B2C shared micromobility provider in the European sense. FREENOW’s reach and customer base in Europe can now be used to encourage bike-sharing in the cities in which they operate, and add ammunition to any tender proposal for public bike sharing.

 🤝 nextbike Poland joins nextbike

nextbike Polska is now officially part of the nextbike Group, after STAR Pedal II GmbH, a subsidiary of STAR Pedal GmbH (parent company of nextbike GmbH), has acquired 100% of the shares.

Since their break from TIER, nextbike have announced expansions to Belgium and France, whilst Poland continues to record very strong ridership numbers. In 2024, 80 Polish cities had access to nextbike bikes, and ridership surpassed 8.7 million.

LAUNCHES & EXPANSIONS 🚀

Beryl
Expansion in Leeds (UK) 🚲️ (265)

Dott
Launch…

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PAUSES & EXITS 👋

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CITY UPDATES 🌐

Madrid (ES) | City Council considers it "unsustainable" that 85% of cars circulate with only the driver.

Santa Cruz (ES) | City considers making rental scooters free for residents.

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INDUSTRY NEWS 🗞️

Dott now accept payments via Satispay in Italy.

Enghouse Systems acquires Trafi, a leading European MaaS player.

E-VAI adds BYD and Toyota models to its fleet.

Lime offers free rides on Earth Day.

Lyft acquires FREENOW for €175m.

STAR Pedal II (owner of nextbike) acquires nextbike Poland.

UPV researchers have developed a new radar system to measure the speed of electric scooters and bicycles in real time in the city of Valencia.

Cycling UK study finds women put off cycling by intimidating drivers.

Via Verde partners with Cooltra to allow its customers to book mopeds in Lisbon PT).

VisionEdgeOne acquires Inurba Mobility.