Uber Poised To Make Investment In Scooter-Rental Business
(AP) -- Uber is getting into the scooter-rental business.
The ride-hailing company said Monday that it is investing in Lime, a startup based in San Mateo.
"Our investment and partnership in Lime is another step towards our vision of becoming a one-stop shop for all your transportation needs," Rachel Holt, an Uber vice president, said in a statement.
Holt said Uber will add Lime scooters to the Uber mobile app, giving consumers another option for getting around cities, especially to and from public transit systems.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Customers can rent Lime scooters in more than 70 locations in the U.S. and Europe and leave them parked for the next customer to ride. The company is looking to buy tens of thousands of motorized foot-pedal scooters to expand its reach.
For Uber, the move follows its purchase earlier this year of Jump Bikes, which rents electric bicycles in a half-dozen cities including San Francisco, Chicago and Washington. Terms were not disclosed.
Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi aims to turn Uber into the Amazon.com of transportation, a single destination where customers can go to hitch a ride in a car and on other modes of transportation — even buy rides on city buses and subway systems. Uber also has a food-delivery service.
Rival Lyft is looking for new rides too. Last week, it bought part of a company called Motivate that operates Citi Bike and other bike-sharing programs in several major U.S. cities including New York and Chicago. It will rename the business Lyft Bikes. Terms of that deal were not disclosed.
While the often brightly colored rental bikes are becoming a more common sight in the U.S., they have already gained widespread use in China and parts of Europe.
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