BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
New York-based Jump Bikes has announced today that is has raised $10m in a Series A funding round led by Menlo Ventures. Also participating in the financing are Sinewave Ventures and existing investors Esther Dyson, SOSv and OurCrowd. The company, formerly known as Social Bicycles, was launched in 2010 and was a dockless bike share innovator.
In September last year Social Bicycles inaugurated the world’s first dockless e-bike scheme – it was launched in Washington DC, and the company told BikeBiz that it was seeking to expand to four other US cities by this summer.
Jump DC is run under the District Department of Transportation’s dockless bike share demonstration program that runs through until April. Trips cost $2 for 30 minutes.
Each Jump e-bike has a 250-watt front hub electric motor limited to a maximum pedal-assist speed of 19mph. All bikes feature GPS to facilitate finding a bike, and an integrated U-lock that fits around existing bike racks rather than to itself, which is now the usual dockless method. Jump bikes can also sync with DC’s SmarTrip card to let people without smartphones access the bikes.
