Understanding the local environment and its constraints is a must for bike-share operators to be successful. Therefore, small companies building their own product and offer have a competitive advantage, even in front of the sector giants. Oribiky, a french start-up based in Villetaneuse, 12km north of Paris city-center, is willing to use it.

Oribiky was born in 2016, led by serial entrepreneur Yann Poincloux. Having started with foldable E-bike retail, Yann used his experience to switch to E-bikesharing in order to provide a high-quality service together with social and environmental values. And these values come will real actions, as Oribiky will be the only dockless bike-share operator in Paris to offer a low-revenue fare for students, unemployed persons and pensioners (20€/month to 15€/month including a free 20 minutes). They are also working hand-in-hand with two occupational integration organisations (Cap Emploi 93 and L’Ecole de la Deuxième Chance) to build their operation staff. On the environmental side, the building, vehicle and battery chargers use electricity 100% from renewable energies. Because, yes, 100% of the maintenance and balancing vehicle are electric as well!

The company chose to bet on comfort and quality. You can see it on the bike: 24′ wheels, 1.75′ tires, disc brakes (I’m curious to get a feedback on maintenance) for a good user experience (if you once rode a chinese dockless bike on cobbles, you know what I mean). The bike is secured thanks to the Linka Leo lock, and will soon offer the possibility to add the chain for a build-in “lock-to” solution, have a high-end metallic phone-holder, and a USB port on the battery pack. The rear motor from Aikema is powered by a 400Wh battery, allowing to ride around 100km with a single charge, secured thanks to 2 mechanisms.

Oribiky is ready yet to operate and maintain up to 2000 bikes in their facility, and has chosen to swap batteries at night for an optimized battery management. Maintenance will be assured by day and night teams, to perform on-field and in-shop activities.

Oribiky has just launched its beta-test with 10 to 20 bikes in central Paris, to test its hardware and software solutions. They will then launch gradually before Christmas, with the goal to have 400 bikes in the French capital in the next couple of months. Simultaneously, the company is in talks to operate in different major french cities in Hauts-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and PACA, and will widen its service range: a white-label offer for local authorities and private companies is under work, along with  guided-tour and bike-messenger offers.