Only a couple months after Uber partnered with startup Jump Bikes to launch a bike-sharing service in San Francisco, the ride-hailing company has revealed it is buying the startup.
Uber’s purchase of Jump Bikes, the first company to provide stationless bike sharing in San Francisco, was officially announced Monday. The price was not disclosed, though TechCrunch reported that an unnamed source valued the deal at “closer to $200 million,” rather than the $100 million that was initially discussed.
For San Francisco-based Uber, adding Jump furthers its goal of enabling city dwellers to not own cars, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a blog post.
“We’re committed to bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app — so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where you’re going, whether that’s in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more,” he wrote.
Additionally, buying Jump puts Uber into a new business model, of which it both owns and operates vehicles, unlike its ride-hailing service, which allows drivers to use their own personal cars.
Uber first began relations with Jump Bikes in February, when it partnered with the startup to launch a bike-sharing service in San Francisco. Similar to Uber’s car service, users can reserve pedal-assisted e-bikes provided through Jump Bikes, generally bright red with the word “Jump” written along their side and attached to a pole or bike rack along a street. After locating the nearest bike through the app, a user is given a PIN code to unlock the bike through its keypad on the back.
This new service quickly gained success, and the partnership served as a pilot program between the two companies. Jump founder and CEO Ryan Rzepecki said in an interview that a pilot program with Uber over the past several weeks showed “tons of alignment and synergy between Uber’s and our business.”
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Uber and Jump’s partnership remains successful. Rzepecki noted that in San Francisco, each Jump bike is used for six or seven trips a day, very high for the industry.
