Zagster

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Zagster
Type Private
Founded Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2007)
Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people

Timothy Ericson (CEO & Co-founder)
Jason Meinzer (Co-founder)

[1]
Website

Zagster is a venture-funded startup company based in Boston, Massachusetts that designs, builds, and operates private bike sharing programs for universities, corporate campuses, hotels, and residential communities across the United States. Zagster's deployment partners include Yale University, Quicken Loans, Hyatt, The Related Companies, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.[2] [3] [4]

History

Zagster was founded in 2007 by Drexel University graduates Timothy Ericson and Jason Meinzer as 'CityRyde'. CityRyde initially sought to operate a bike-sharing program in the Philadelphia region, but later established itself as a software provider and consultant in the industry. [5]

In September 2009, CityRyde launched Spark, the world’s first off-the-shelf bike-sharing fleet management software, at the University of Chicago. Spark's features include electronic user registration, automated rental processes, integration with automated locking mechanisms, a customized reporting dashboard, and the ability to integrate with existing systems. Spark was used at 10 universities, including the University of Chicago, Cornell University, University of Colorado at Boulder and Drexel University. Spark was also adopted by The Related Companies, a real estate developer, manager and financier, for use in apartment complexes.

In 2011 CityRyde released Inspire, a software package which certifies and monetizes carbon offset credits to generate additional revenue for bike-sharing systems, which have traditionally struggled in that regard.[6][7] Inspire integrates with existing systems to retrieve bicycle usage data and calculate carbon savings using the proprietary algorithms of CityRyde’s carbon methodology, which was validated in the summer of 2011 for the Voluntary Carbon Standard.[8]

In 2012 CityRyde was renamed Zagster and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to join the TechStars startup accelerator program.[9] Zagster was also selected as a finalist for the MassChallenge startup competition in 2012.[10] The company raised a $1M funding round in fall 2012 led by LaunchCapital and Fontinalis Partners.[11][12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Zagster - Our Company". 
  2. ↑ Moschen, Isabella (June 6, 2013). "The Two-Wheeled Amenity". New York Times. 
  3. ↑ Gallagher, John (July 24, 2013). "Dan Gilbert brings bike sharing to Motor City for his employees". Detroit Free Press. 
  4. ↑ "Yale Bikeshare". 
  5. ↑ All for Profit and Profiting for All | Entrepreneur.com
  6. ↑ Bringing the Bucks to Bike-Sharing : Discovery News
  7. ↑ Turning Urban Biking Into a Cash Cow : TreeHugger
  8. ↑ "Validation Report for Methodology for Determining GHG Emission Reductions Through Bicycle Sharing Projects". First Environment, Inc. 
  9. ↑ Meet the 13 New TechStars Boston Startups | Xconomy
  10. ↑ "MassChallenge 2012 Finalists". 
  11. ↑ Alspach, Kyle (October 18, 2012). "Zagster raises $1M to take bike-sharing service nationwide". 
  12. ↑ Zagster | LaunchCapital

External links


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