Lyft Grows With Hitch Acquisition

Lyft, the pink mustachioed ridesharing service living in Uber's shadow, has acquired competing transportation startup Hitch. As a result of the acquisition, Lyft will absorb Hitch's co-founders into the business, as well as its roster of existing drivers into its own platform.

The news arrived in a joint statement today from both Lyft and Hitch, with the first of the two saying that it is "thrilled" to announce the acquisition. Both of Hitch's founders, Snir Kodesk and Noam Szpiro, will be moved to the Lyft team following Hitch's closure tomorrow.

Hitch is (was) a ridesharing service much like Lyft and Uber, using what its founders call "dynamic routing" and user pairing to make an affordable, more efficient form of public transportation (in comparison to traditional taxi cabs). Says Hitch, "The Lyft team deeply shares our vision for collaborative transportation."

Many of Hitch's drivers were already signed up to work on Lyft's platform, as well, according to the latter company. The acquired company's technology will be put to good use with Lyft Line, the shared ride offering that the company is snowballing into a more expansive service.

SOURCE: Lyft Blog