Lyft said that it will acquire PBSC Urban Solutions, a global supplier of bike-share equipment and technology. The announcement came after the market closed Tuesday evening.
Based in Longueuil, Canada, PBSC began operations in 2008 and has since deployed 7,500 bike-share stations and 95,000 bikes in 45 markets and 15 countries. According to a press release Lyft issued, the acquisition will roughly double its scale in micromobility. Lyft said it expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2022.
The acquisition will help Lyft from a research and development perspective and also by improving supply chain leverage and diversification, a Lyft spokesperson said, ultimately benefiting both riders and cities.
Lyft is currently the largest bike-share service in the U.S., operating in 10 markets, according to Jordan Levine, head of communications for Lyft Transit, Bikes and Scooters. In 2021, the company says it had 3.8 million active riders and 47 million rides on its bikes and scooters.
The global bike-share market is expected to reach $4.49 billion by 2027, an increase of nearly 37%, according to a research report issued yesterday by IMARC Group, a market research company. "The market is primarily driven by the growing need for urban transportation that offers ease of transit," IMARC said in a press release.
"This is a huge development and opportunity for PBSC," said the company's CEO, Luc Sabbatini, in a statement. Lyft said that PBSC and Motivate, a company Lyft acquired in 2018, shared in the formation of the Bixi bike-share system in Montréal.
Lyft would not comment on the financials of the deal at this time but said that it would release that information in a future filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Lyft will announce its first-quarter 2022 financial results on May 3.
