Lyft is acquiring Serveo’s bikeshare business in Barcelona, Bilbao, Valladolid and Zaragoza and provides contract management and local support for bikeshare services in Madrid, La Coruña and Rivas-Vaciamadrid.

Lyft will continue its role as the technology and hardware provider across all these programmes.

The planned acquisition will combine Lyft’s technical and operational expertise with the local knowledge and proven track record of the Serveo team. Serveo operates the Bicing micromobility service in Barcelona (www.bicing.barcelona).

“Lyft has built the operational depth and technology platform behind some of the largest bikeshare systems in the world,” said Michael Brous, head of Lyft’s micromobility division. “For years, we’ve watched Serveo build something just as impressive: world-class bikeshare programmes that Spanish cities depend on every day, including Bicing in Barcelona, one of Europe’s biggest and most-used programmes. Now we will get to unite those two strengths, offering city partners something more than the sum of our parts, which means better systems and a better experience for riders. We’re excited to deepen our roots in Spain and bring our experience as a leading bikeshare operator to cities across Europe and beyond.”

Lyft (www.lyft.com) has served as Serveo’s exclusive technology and hardware partner for seven years. Today, the company is a leading bikeshare operator in North America, enabling six of the largest bikeshare programmes in the USA, together accounting for more than 200 million kilometres travelled last year.

Globally, Lyft technology and hardware powers 55 systems across 14 countries, including 18 programmes across Europe, with a network of more than 195,000 bikes and 15,000 stations. That operational depth and technology platform are what the company now brings to Spain. For cities using Serveo services today, Lyft will prioritise continuity for partners and riders, and continue to deepen the existing public-private partnerships.

“The Serveo team brings proven scale and expertise to this next chapter, with more than 22,000 shared bicycles managed across seven Spanish cities, powered by effort, commitment and professionalism,” said Salvador Urquía, CEO of Serveo (serveo.com). “We’re proud of what we’ve built, and the team is excited to begin this new phase united with a leading partner in the sector.”

The Lyft team brings more than 15 years of bikeshare industry experience, helping launch some of the first station-based public bikeshare programmes in North America and pioneering the introduction of e-bikes and in-dock charging stations to modern bikeshare. With this planned acquisition, Lyft will for the first time operate bikeshare systems on both sides of the Atlantic, with technology powering bikeshare programmes across North America, South America, Europe and Asia.