German bike share firm nextbike has been sold by Tier Mobility and will operate as an independent entity once again.
The sale to private equity firm STAR Capital Partnership LLP comes shortly after Tier’s official merger with Dott just over a month ago. This saw Tier double down on its B2C business model which differs from nextbike’s B2G approach.
“Since its first days as a start up, nextbike has developed into the European bike share market leader, pioneering the B2G integration of bike share solutions into the public transport infrastructure of more than 300 cities and municipalities across Europe,” nextbike Chief Business Officer Simon Stephan told Zag Daily.
“This business model has distinct tender requirements and product needs and therefore operates better separately. Each company will have greater success in building the best service for their customers independent from one another.”
Tier acquired nextbike back in November 2021. The new sale was advised by German independent financial advisor Pava Partners, and nextbike’s company name will change to nextbike GmbH immediately after the shares have been transferred from Tier Mobility SE to STAR Capital.
In 2023, nextbike generated €59.3 million in revenue and its 115,000 bikes dotted across over 300 cities were used approximately 45 million times.
With the transaction expected to close in May, nextbike will continue to focus on its growth and integration into European cities, its in-house development of bike share solutions, and comprehensive rebranding.
“Long-term reliability is key when it comes to public infrastructure and services. With this step, we are ideally equipped to concentrate on our core business and to elevate the transport transformation.”
Tier did not respond before press time regarding how much the sale of nextbike was worth.
