Rydies | Overview

Cities worldwide face a great need for action to solve the problems of traffic caused by cars. Due to the climate goals and the demands on urban planning, the demand for intelligent mobility solutions in politics, administration and the economy is high.  

The use of bicycles and the number of associated providers and services has already increased considerably in recent years: In 2017 alone, around 30 million e-bikes were sold worldwide (estimated 40 million in 2023), of which 720,000 were sold in Germany (+19%) and more than 3 million were used for bike sharing. Bike leasing and company bicycles are also promoted, and new vehicle and sales concepts are entering the market.

Until now, however, both providers of bicycle mobility and other mobility service providers such as public transport companies have operated separately. This lack of interconnectivity means that there is no basis for an efficient combination of the two transport systems, public transport and cycling.

This is caused by an inadequate data base, which is characterized by considerable dispersion and a great volume of information that has not yet been digitalized.

The mobility data startup Rydies offers a solution precisely for this problem. Rydies digitalizes and integrates all bike mobility services with other means of transport.

Read more about Rydies' answers to questions on urban mobility in our Companisto blog (in German).

Rydies thus represents the interface between micro mobility providers and mobility portals.

Information about services and booking thereof is integrated into the websites/apps of third-party providers and linked to additional mobility services by means of digital interfaces.

The following example shows the integration of Rydies’ booking data for “bike parking” at the starting point and “bike-sharing” at the arrival point in the travel route suggested by the transport provider.

Rydies’ target groups include mobility portals (cities, public transportation services, bus/rail, and map/navigation businesses, mobility apps) and providers of micro mobility (esp. bike-sharing providers, conventional bike rentals, paid parking stations, free parking areas, e-bike charging stations).

Advantages: Cities and transportation providers can integrate cycling connections into their services, while providers of bike mobility services gain access to new target groups and online sales channels. Moreover, users of these services gain access to information, booking & payment of secure bike parking spots, charging opportunities for e-bikes, as well as rental and sharing offers all via their preferred website/app without having to access an additional website or app.

Rydies generates revenues in 3 ways: Data licenses for portals, commissions, and software licenses for providers.

In December 2017, innogy from Essen (e-mobility, energy) and in-tech from Garching/Munich (automotive, digitalization) made seed investments in Rydies and actively supported its establishment.

Through financing via Companisto, Rydies intends to expand sales in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and to continue improving its IT platform.

By 2024, Rydies wants to have established itself as THE solution for urban bicycle and micro mobility worldwide, make a significant contribution for liveable cities with fewer cars and more bikes, and generate EUR 20 million in revenues in doing so. To accomplish this, the founding team draws upon up to 20 years of experience and contacts in the mobility, travel, and car sharing industries.

Rydies GmbH operates a B2B2C platform for mobility portals (cities, public transportation operators, bus/rail, and map/navigation businesses, mobility apps) as well as providers of micro mobility such as bike-sharing operators.

On one hand, Rydies collects (aggregates) and digitalizes services offered by providers of micro mobility. On the other hand, Rydies offers (integrates) the data it has processed to mobility portals for their use (B2B). They can thus expand their offer with comprehensive information and booking opportunities all around connected, daily mobility (B2C).

In this way, all participants are efficiently connected with one another. As such, Rydies does not need to create an expensive consumer solution but reaches users indirectly through portals with a broad reach (B2B2C).

In a sense, Rydies is the “booking.com” of micro mobility; however, rather than using its own brand, it distributes its services via third-party portals.

What types of data are aggregated and integrated?

The relevant services that are aggregated on the platform include: Parking options for private bicycles, bike-sharing providers, conventional bike rentals, and e-bike charging stations.

Up until now, more than 10,000 sets of data for services of this sort in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have been stored in the Rydies data base. Rydies collects, validates, and completes this data together with service providers from a variety of digital and analog sources.

How is the data aggregated and integrated?

Rydies has developed the tools necessary to aggregate and integrate these service offers and data and has integrated these in its platform.

Aggregation of Data

Rydies collects, validates, and completes the data together with service providers from a variety of digital and analog sources. Different products are used depending on the situation.

1. Rydies Collect – Providers of bike mobility can transmit their data to Rydies as API or CSV. If the data are not yet available in digital form, Rydies can digitalize them by gathering analog data (print media) or completing Excel lists. If the data is not available or incomplete, employees generate initial data by driving through and examining the neighborhoods. In doing so, Rydies uses its own recording software that runs via smartphone.
   
   
2. Rydies Park Manager – A software for the digital operation and online marketing of bike stations. Operators of bike parking complexes and providers of parking systems can use this Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to manage operation efficiently. Furthermore, all offers can be found and booked online. At present, most of the approx. 150 paid parking lots and several fee-based bike boxes are analog, meaning they use keys and one pays on-site.
   
   
3. Rydies Station Manager – Operators of parking, rental, and charging service stations can keep their data up-to-date by logging into the Rydies data base. They can also use this tool to manage their own stations for free. It only takes three steps to register and post own offers online.
   
   
4. Rydies Connect – An interface to in integrate the data base into the websites and apps of mobility portals such as those from cities, bike rentals, and energy providers. This occurs by means of “white label” (inserting data in the existing homepage layout), “API” (digital interface), “CSV (MS-Excel-based file), or “Widgets” (curated insertion in homepages).
   
   
5. Rydies Stimulate – Software that simulates planning of infrastructure, the flow of traffic, and connections based on the manifold information stored in the Rydies data base by using the proven simulation tools of Fraunhofer FOKUS Berlin. This way, existing cycling networks can be examined for their state and effectivity and new networks can be planned.

Win-Win-Win-Situation

All participants benefit:

1. Providers of bike parking complexes, charging stations, rentals, and other micro mobility gain access to new sales channels and target groups. The mostly small local or regional providers alone do not have the capacity to place their offers on far-reaching mobility portals.
   
   
2. Mobility portals can integrate “first and last mile” (connective) mobility to their services. Consumers who can select and book services, for example to bike to the train station, increasingly make use of the core services offered by the transportation providers.
   
   
3. Consumers gain easy access to all services of various providers in their preferred mobility app. There is no need for additional apps.

The Rydies GmbH’s business model is based on the sale of digital data, the evaluation thereof, and the operative use of the necessary software for the areas of bike parking, charging, and renting.

The data is sold via data licenses. Customers can thus access information about a geographical area (city, region, country) and a service area (parking, renting, charging) stored in the data base. They can use the data stored and maintained there for advertisement, informational purposes, invoicing, and planning infrastructure and traffic.

When commissioning paid services, Rydies receives a commission fee, e.g. through the renting of parking spaces in bike parking complexes or bike boxes for private bikes, the booking of rental bikes, or the charging of e-bikes.

Rydies also generates income through Software-as-a-Service/SaaS licensing of the “Rydies Park Manager” including setup (system installation) and transactions (number of parking procedures).

Customers pay a one-time setup fee (installation costs) for the conceptualization, consultation, and technical implementation in addition to monthly usage fees.

Rydies is the first company to collect all providers of bike-related micro mobility and their offers digitally and sells this information to third parties.  

On one hand, Rydies thus offers third-party providers the “missing puzzle piece” for comprehensive micro mobility in the “last mile” by bike, be it a private, rental, or shared bike.

On the other hand, only Rydies provides micro mobility providers the opportunity to digitalize, save, and add to their existing offers by means of data generation and to market these in a multitude of other online communication and sales channels.

Differentiation compared to (potential) competition

Other mobility portals or aggregators focus primarily on car sharing, car rental, or bike-sharing. However, their focus is

1. not on private bikes,
2. only on services whose data are already available in digital form
3. primarily on their own services, not on the plentiful offers of other providers.

However, some of the businesses listed below are relevant to Rydies as potential customers.

In the long-term, Rydies will position itself as the provider of a comprehensive solution as an aggregation and integration platform in combination with its tools (such as “Stimulate,” “Rydies Collect,” and “Station Manager”) and will clearly distinguish itself from other services.

Rydies has carried out initial reference projects with reputable customers and has found a competent partner for the product “Stimulate” in Fraunhofer FOKUS.

Customers

The Bavarian capital of Munich, which has set itself the goal of becoming Germany’s “cycling capital,” uses Rydies’ widgets at www.radlhauptstadt.muenchen.de, to display the opportunities to rent and park bikes in the Munich area to its citizens and visitors in a transparent manner.

“At the ‘Radstation Hannover’ with 700 guarded, paid parking spots, the use of the Rydies software solution enables a more efficient management of parking maneuvers and of the parking spots. Available parking spots are displayed on the website in real-time and can soon be booked online as well,” says the director of the bike station Mark Meissner. “The different parking areas of the bike station can now be utilized more flexibly. As such, we can offer more parking spots. What’s more, new users who did not know about the ‘Radstation’ are coming to us after finding us on the Internet.” There have been positive reports in the news as well. (Link zu Presseartikel HAZ als pdf Download)

In partnership with the city Essen, Rydies collected all offers for bicycle mobility digitally and presents these to commuters, tourists, and (paying) hobby-bikers on the white label website www.biken.ruhr. In cooperation with a bicycle courier service, all B+R stations and bike racks in the city were recorded digitally for the first time.

Partnerships

Together with the “Fraunhofer Institut für offene Kommunikationssysteme FOKUS,” Rydies developed the planning software “Stimulate” (Link mit Download Produktpräsentation pdf). City administrations, mobility providers and other institutions can plan and implement infrastructure, traffic control and connection mobility by bike based on the extensive Rydies data base and the Fraunhofer simulation tool VSimRTI.

Rydies primarily addresses two target groups: Companies in the area of micro mobility as “data providers” and mobility portals as “data consumers.”

Mobility portals include public transportation, bus & rail companies, as well as cities and municipalities as they exist in every city. Regional, national, and international tourism portals, business travel portals, map and navigation providers, and intermodal apps (which display various modes of transport in one app) are also relevant for Rydies, enabling a rapid geographical expansion.

Micro mobility service providers include private and institutional providers of bike mobility for parking, bike-sharing, bike rentals, and the charging of e-bikes.

There are approx. 450 public transportation businesses in Germany alone. Our initial focus, however, will be on cities with at least 500,000 inhabitants. Rydies assumes 1 to 6 customers per city, wherefore we expect to have 2,000 paying customers for our data licenses (Rydies Connect) in 2024.

Beyond that, another important target group consists of transregional, national, and international map/navigation providers, mobility app operators, (business) travel and tourism businesses. Approx. 100 smart mobility and intermodal app providers and approx. 50 map/navigation providers are relevant for Rydies.

At present, approx. 150 guarded bike stations in Germany, approx. 50 in Switzerland and a large number of bike boxes are relevant for the software solution “Rydies Park Manager.” Availability of guarded, paid parking is steadily increasing due to the support of significant funding thereof. Nearly all bike stations operate with analog purchasing processes and booking systems.

In 2017 and 2018, Rydies developed the basic technology and the data base to address potential customers and partners with the first prototype on its website and to fine-tune the concept. After concluding seed financing in Dezember 2017, Rydies developed the IT tools for the aggregation and integration of data and optimized the IT systems. New interested parties were met at trade fairs such as the “IT Trans” of the World Organisation of Public Transport Companies (UITP). We achieved the “Proof of Concept & Technology.” The first reference projects with customers went online in late May 2018. The planning and simulation tool “Stimulate” was developed after two successful competitions at Fraunhofer.  

In 2018 and 2019, several new customer projects and partnerships are to develop. We have access to a very good own network of customers and multipliers in the DACH-region. Long-standing industry experts from the car sharing sector who have worked intensively with cities and communal transportation operators oversee marketing and sales at Rydies. Beyond that, Rydies integrates sales partners (reseller) who insert Rydies’ data in their white label solutions.

Based on currently pending offers and other planned customer projects, we expect to conclude 5 new contracts in 2018 and 30 new contracts in 2019 for data license, commission-based, and SaaS applications.

In 2019, we want to have digitalized the majority of mobility services for bikes and integrated these in the systems of data license customers in at least 10 major cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In 2020, we plan to expand into the bike-friendly countries Denmark and the Netherlands; other European countries will follow. We plan to enter the major markets of Asia and North America in 2021.

The Companists’ investments will be used to promote sales in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A solid customer basis in the German-speaking market is an important prerequisite for further expansion abroad. On-going negotiations with customers and cooperation partners are to be concluded and carried out by late 2018 and early 2019. Rydies wants to use the help of Companisto to become the leading platform for micro mobility.

Use of Funds

Level 1: Funding threshold: As of € 100,000

• Focus on existing sales contacts, network, and recommendations in Germany for data integration (Rydies Connect) and the “Rydies Park Manager” software
• Use and sale of all currently developed features of all Rydies products
• Technical developments for new customers

Level 2: Funding Threshold: As of € 300,000

In addition to the measures from Level 1

• Customer acquisition focused on public transportation, cities, bike stations, and navigation providers through direct approach and exhibitions at max. 3 trade fairs/congresses (free presentations at congresses take place independent of this)
• Acquisition in Austria and Switzerland as well
• IT-advancement of Rydies “Connect” and, selectively, of “Rydies Park Manager”

Level 3: Funding Threshold: As of € 500,000

In addition to the measures from Level 1 and 2

• Sales to all relevant target groups incl. business travel and tourism portals
• Extensive PR measures and exhibition booths and presentations at several trade fairs
• Planning of sales launch in the Netherlands and in Denmark as of late 2019. Contracts with partners (existing contacts) and development of a comprehensive sales strategy
• Advancement of all Rydies products with new features, e.g. integration of bike-sharing booking and use (rental) in other mobility portals’ apps

In Dezember 2017, innogy (energy industry, e-mobility) and in-tech (digitalization, automobile) agreed upon a seed investment. Both investors also provide great expertise and networks to actively support Rydies. Becasuse mobility is becoming increasingly electric and many automobile businesses (manufacturers, suppliers) are getting involved in new mobility, Rydies is well-prepared with these investors and partners.  

Kerstin Eichmann, managing director of innogy innovation hub, Berlin states: 

“The future of urban mobility is electric. For this to work, services must be well connected and economical for the providers. We are convinced that Rydies will enable precisely this. After all, we can only tap into a real mass market with a competent partner.”

The investment in Rydies was important to Tobias Wagner, managing director of in-tech GmbH from Garching/Munich, because “our customers, the manufacturers and suppliers of cars, do not only produce cars; they are positioning themselves more broadly as mobility service providers. Rydies has the expertise, networks, and products that will enable rapid growth in the promising market of micro mobility in which not only the auto industry will play a role.”

Cycling moves everyone – be it privately or professionally. Tips, recommendations, and contacts from Companists to potential customers, partners, and multipliers are important to Rydies. A broad network of supporters considerably increases our reach.

With this campaign, we also highlight the use case for the actual target group: the current and future users of bike mobility. This is important to us as a B2B2C startup relevant, since negotiations with our B2B customers always ultimately center around the consumer (“2C”)!

Rydies GmbH
Neumarkter Str. 23
81673 Munich

Website: www.rydies.com
Email: go@rydies.com