Viacycle

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

ViaCycle was an Atlanta, Georgia-based bike-sharing technology company founded by Georgia Tech students. It built advanced, dockless bike-sharing systems: bikes equipped with a battery pack, solar panel, chain lock and GPS could be locked, unlocked and located with a smartphone or a text message, without docking stations. Customers — colleges and cities — typically paid about $20 per bike per month plus an upfront cost of $1,000–$1,500 per bike, far cheaper than station-based systems. It won the 2010 MIT Clean Energy Prize (transportation category), a $50,000 Ford grant, and joined Y Combinator's Summer 2012 class.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2010
   Founded and early wins

   ViaCycle was founded by Georgia Tech students; it won the 2010 MIT Clean Energy Prize in transportation and a $50,000 Ford grant.

2. 2012
   YC and launch

   ViaCycle joined the Y Combinator Summer 2012 class and launched its smartphone-unlocked bike-sharing platform — described as a 'Zipcar for bicycles' — with pilots on the Georgia Tech and George Mason campuses, plus Google's main campus and a San Francisco coworking space.

3. 2015
   Faded

   The company ceased active operations around 2015; no public announcement of a shutdown or acquisition was found.