German bicycle rental startup Nextbike has sealed an exclusive joint venture with Ahmadabad-based transport startup Chartered Speed to launch digital cycle sharing services in about 100 Indian cities.
“The operations will be started from Bhopal with 500 bicycles and will be app-based, backed strongly by digital technology,” said Chartered Speed Managing Director Pankaj Gandhi. Nextbike is a potent partner as it has years of domain expertise and indepth knowledge in bicycle renting and sharing across the globe, he said.
Founded in 2004 by Ralf Kalupner with just 20 cycles (bikes), Nextbike today has more than 35,000 own brand bicycles, spread across 18 countries and four continents. In many other countries, it works through licensing with another 3 lakh bicycles.
Nextbike is a fully-automated bicycle sharing system in public space. It has features that allow the bicycles to be locked and unlocked via app, through mobile scanning, radio frequency identification smart cards, PIN or code numbers.
“Apart from rentals, the revenue would be generated through outdoor advertising on bicycles as well as advertising on bicycles stands built by us,” said Gandhi.
The investment per digital bicycle will be around Rs 1 lakh.
“We believe to add another 10,000 to 15,000 bikes in another one year across India,” said Sebastian Schlebusch, international business director at Nextbike. The Indian market is nearly untapped unlike China where about 1 million shared bicycles are already in operation, Schlebusch said.
Source: The Economic Times
Image Courtesy: Next Bike
