Uber Acquires Dockless Bike-share Startup, Jump
Jump bikes has a new owner; Uber. Uber, the ride hailing giants made its first acquisition under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Jump Bikes, a startup that rents out electric dockless bikes in San Francisco and Washington DC. The New York City-based e-bike startup has been working with Uber for two months on a pilot to integrate bike-sharing options into Uber’s app. Apparently that trial went well because now Jump will become a subsidiary of Uber, and the ride-hailing company will take a leap into a brand new industry, with a different set of challenges and pitfalls. The bike-sharing company Jump, launched in 2011 as a Social Bicycles that runs GPS-enabled programs in twelve cities all over the world, including Portland, Oregon, and Phoenix, Arizona. In San Francisco, where it has 250 bikes, and Washington and about 100 Jump employees will be joining Uber. Jump’s offerings are both electric and dockless—twin cycling innovations that helped kick off a nationwide (and glo...