In this edition of our Partner in the Spotlight series, we are pleased to feature nextbike Cyprus, one of the country's leading shared mobility providers and a key contributor to the development of sustainable urban mobility solutions.
Since 2012, nextbike Cyprus has been helping cities reduce car dependency, improve connectivity and encourage active mobility through its bike-sharing services and sustainable urban logistics solutions. Going beyond traditional bike sharing, the company combines operational expertise with innovation in areas such as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), digital mobility platforms, data-driven planning and climate-neutral city initiatives. Through its involvement in European projects such as MetaCCAZE and SUM, nextbike Cyprus is helping bridge the gap between mobility innovation and large-scale deployment.
In this interview, Antonis Nicolaides, Business Development Director at nextbike Cyprus, discusses the company's role in supporting sustainable and connected mobility, the growing importance of data and digitalisation in shared mobility systems, and the opportunities that collaboration within the ERTICO Partnership creates for advancing smarter, more integrated and citizen-centric transport solutions across Europe.
Could you briefly introduce nextbike Cyprus and explain your role within the sustainable mobility ecosystem?
nextbike Cyprus has been operating since 2012 as one of Cyprus’s leading shared mobility providers, delivering bike-sharing services across key urban centres, high-demand locations, and selected rural areas. Our mission is to make sustainable mobility practical, accessible, and embedded in everyday travel behaviour.
We position ourselves not simply as a bike-sharing operator, but as a mobility enabler. Our role in the sustainable mobility ecosystem is to help cities reduce dependence on private cars, ease congestion, lower emissions, and strengthen the connection between public transport and active mobility. By addressing first- and last-mile challenges, we support the creation of more connected, resilient, and people-centred urban environments.
Beyond bike sharing, we have spent the past seven years supporting the growing urban logistics and food-delivery sector by providing and managing e-bike fleets for delivery platforms. This contributes directly to the decarbonisation of urban deliveries, reduces reliance on motorised vehicles, and helps cities move toward cleaner and more efficient mobility systems.
We also see a strong social dimension in our work. Many delivery riders in Cyprus come from Asian and other international communities, and through our operations we help promote European road safety practices, mobility standards, and sustainable transport culture. In this way, we are not only enabling mobility, but also contributing to inclusion, skills, and responsible urban transport behaviour. Today, nextbike Cyprus stands at the intersection of shared mobility, sustainable urban logistics, and social inclusion. We see this as a practical contribution to Cyprus’s mobility transition and to Europe’s broader climate, transport, and sustainability goals.
Many people associate nextbike mainly with bike-sharing services. Could you tell us more about the wider range of solutions and innovations your company is developing?
While bike sharing remains at the core of our activities, we increasingly see ourselves as a mobility innovation partner supporting cities in their transition towards cleaner, smarter, and more connected transport systems.
Our work extends beyond fleet operations into sustainable urban logistics, multimodal mobility integration, digital mobility services, and data-driven transport planning. Through the management of both shared bicycle systems and e-bike delivery fleets, we gain valuable operational insights into how active mobility can support both passenger and goods movement within cities.
A key focus for us is the integration of shared mobility into wider urban mobility ecosystems. We are particularly interested in Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), digital mobility platforms, real-time data utilisation, and solutions that improve connectivity between public transport and active mobility. We believe that seamless integration between transport modes is essential for increasing the adoption of sustainable mobility solutions and reducing dependence on private vehicles.
Our involvement in European initiatives such as the MetaCCAZE project and the SUM project has further strengthened this direction. Through these collaborations, we work alongside cities, technology providers, research institutions, and mobility stakeholders to test and deploy innovative mobility solutions in real-world environments. These projects allow us to contribute practical operational expertise while helping cities advance their climate-neutrality and sustainability goals.
As Cyprus's leading bike-sharing operator, we believe our greatest value lies in bridging innovation and deployment. We provide not only mobility services, but also real-world living-lab environments where new solutions can be tested, validated, and scaled. Through our presence across multiple cities, our operational experience, and our direct engagement with citizens, we can help transform innovative concepts into measurable outcomes for urban mobility.
We believe that the combination of ERTICO’s innovation ecosystem and nextbike Cyprus’s real-world deployment capabilities can accelerate the transition from mobility innovation to measurable impact. Through our operational footprint, mobility data, and experience in European collaborative projects, we are committed to contributing to scalable solutions that can be replicated across European cities and support Europe’s broader sustainability, digitalisation, and climate objectives.
nextbike’s expertise also includes technology innovation for bikes and stations. What are some of the most exciting developments or smart solutions you are currently working on?
One of the most exciting directions for us is the evolution of our system into a more flexible, intelligent, and user-centric mobility platform. This includes smarter operational models such as zones, virtual stations, and on-demand station concepts, as well as incentive mechanisms that reward users for returning bikes from free-floating use to stations or designated parking areas. These tools help us better match real urban demand, improve accessibility, and increase service efficiency. Additionally, the evolution of our system will include the integration of sensors that measure the atmospheric pollution in real time.
We are also focused on better mobility integration, ensuring that shared bikes are part of a wider multimodal journey connected to public transport and other sustainable mobility options. The aim is to make urban travel smoother, more seamless, and more sustainable.
At the same time, we are developing data-driven planning and operational tools that help us understand demand patterns, optimise fleet distribution, improve station performance, and support better infrastructure decisions. This allows both operators and cities to work with more accurate information and deliver more responsive and scalable mobility services.
Our participation in MetaCCAZE and SUM has further strengthened this direction, giving us the opportunity to test innovative approaches in real-world environments and contribute to city-level mobility transformation. Overall, we see nextbike Cyprus evolving into a living-lab partner that can support innovation, deployment, and replication across European cities.
How do digitalisation and data-driven technologies help improve the user experience and operational efficiency of shared mobility systems?
Digitalization is the critical enabler that transforms a fleet of bikes into a connected, intelligent mobility layer. We view digitalization through three strategic lenses that align directly with Europe’s digital and green transition:
- First, for the User Journey: Digitalization allows us to move beyond simple rentals toward account-based, multimodal integration. By utilizing real-time APIs and seamless digital interfaces, we ensure that micromobility is a reliable, "MaaS-ready" component of the public transport backbone, making sustainable travel the most convenient option for citizens.
- Second, for Operational Intelligence: Data is the engine of our efficiency. Through advanced analytics, we manage fleet rebalancing, predictive maintenance, and dynamic incentive schemes - such as rewarding users for returning bikes to high-demand hubs. This data-driven approach reduces our operational carbon footprint while maximizing asset availability, a key objective in projects like MetaCCAZE.
- Third, for City-Level Decision Support: For us, every bike is a mobile sensor. The data we generate provides cities with high-resolution insights into urban flow and infrastructure performance. This is where we see the most exciting potential for ERTICO partners: contributing high-quality active mobility data into the European Common Data Space and supporting the development of Urban Digital Twins.
In the framework of Horizon Europe, we see digitalization as more than just a tool for efficiency; it is the bridge to a truly integrated, smart mobility ecosystem. nextbike Cyprus is committed to being an "open-data" partner, providing the real-world digital insights necessary to validate the next generation of ITS standards and climate-neutral city strategies.
How does nextbike work with cities, public authorities, and other stakeholders to support sustainable and connected mobility, and are there any recent projects or success stories you would particularly like to highlight?
At nextbike Cyprus, we strongly believe that sustainable mobility can only succeed through collaboration. Shared mobility delivers the greatest impact when it is fully aligned with city strategies, public transport planning, climate objectives, and citizen needs. For this reason, we work closely with municipalities, the Ministry of Transport, public transport operators, universities, technology providers, and community stakeholders to ensure that mobility solutions are integrated into the broader urban ecosystem rather than operating as standalone services.
Our approach is built on long-term partnerships that combine operational expertise, innovation, and public policy objectives. Beyond providing mobility services, we help cities better understand mobility behaviour, encourage active transport, reduce emissions, and create more accessible and people-centred urban environments.
A particularly important success story is our contribution to Limassol's journey as one of Europe's Mission Cities aiming for climate neutrality by 2030. Through the MetaCCAZE project, we are working alongside cities, research institutions, and technology partners to demonstrate how shared mobility, digitalisation, and data-driven solutions can support climate-neutral urban development. As an operational partner, we provide real-world deployment capabilities, user engagement, and mobility data that help transform innovation into measurable outcomes.
Our participation in the SUM project further strengthens this role by allowing us to collaborate with European partners on the future of sustainable urban mobility and the integration of active transport within multimodal transport systems. These projects demonstrate that nextbike Cyprus is not only implementing mobility solutions but actively contributing to the development of future mobility models for European cities.
What makes these collaborations particularly valuable is our ability to bridge innovation and deployment. With more than a decade of operational experience, a nationwide footprint, direct access to users, and active participation in European projects, we can provide cities and project partners with a real-world environment where innovative solutions can be tested, validated, and scaled.
Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities in climate-neutral cities, Mobility-as-a-Service, sustainable urban logistics, active mobility, digital mobility platforms, and data-driven transport planning. We believe that the combination of ERTICO's innovation ecosystem and nextbike Cyprus's deployment capabilities can accelerate the transition from mobility innovation to real-world impact, creating scalable solutions that can be replicated across cities throughout Europe.
What do you see as the main challenges, opportunities, and future trends shaping urban mobility, active transport, and shared micromobility in Europe?
The main challenge in urban mobility today is not simply to provide more transport options, but to ensure that those options are fully integrated, operationally reliable, and financially sustainable. Cities across Europe are under strong pressure to reduce congestion and emissions, while also delivering mobility solutions that are easy to implement, measurable in impact, and scalable across different urban contexts.
This is where the greatest opportunity lies: in integration. The future of mobility will not be defined by standalone modes, but by ecosystems that combine shared bikes, public transport, digital platforms, urban logistics, and clean mobility policies into one connected system. For us, shared micromobility is not an isolated service - it is a strategic layer within a broader multimodal mobility network.
We also see strong potential in Mission Cities, living labs, and cross-city replication. Cities like Limassol demonstrate how real-world deployment can accelerate innovation, especially when supported by European partnerships that connect municipalities, operators, researchers, and technology providers. These environments are essential for turning mobility concepts into practical solutions that can be tested, refined, and scaled.
Looking ahead, the most important trends are:
• stronger multimodal integration, where micromobility becomes a seamless part of the public transport backbone
• data-driven mobility planning, enabling better decisions on infrastructure, demand, and service design
• more active and healthy transport choices, supporting both climate and public health goals
• cleaner urban fleets and infrastructure, aligned with Europe’s decarbonisation agenda
• greater cooperation between cities, operators, and innovation networks, including platforms such as ERTICO
We believe micromobility will play a key role in Europe’s transition toward more flexible, low-carbon, and citizen-centric transport systems. The real opportunity is not only to move people differently, but to build mobility systems that are smarter, more resilient, and more connected - and that is exactly where nextbike Cyprus sees its role.
From your perspective, what makes the ERTICO Partnership truly distinctive within the ITS ecosystem, and where do you see the greatest potential for collaboration in the future?
What makes ERTICO truly distinctive is its unique ability to bring together the entire mobility value chain, cities, public authorities, industry leaders, technology providers, researchers, and mobility operators within a single innovation ecosystem. Few organisations in Europe have the capacity to connect strategic vision, research excellence, policy objectives, and real-world deployment as effectively as ERTICO.
For us, ERTICO is much more than a network. It is a catalyst that transforms innovation into implementation. Its strength lies in creating trusted partnerships that enable mobility solutions to move beyond pilot concepts and become scalable, deployable, and impactful across Europe.
This is particularly important at a time when Europe is accelerating its transition towards climate-neutral, connected, and data-driven mobility systems. Delivering this transition requires collaboration across sectors, disciplines, and geographies, and ERTICO provides exactly that platform.
From nextbike Cyprus's perspective, the greatest opportunities for collaboration lie in areas where operational deployment and innovation must work hand in hand. These include Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), active mobility, sustainable urban logistics, digital mobility platforms, multimodal integration, urban digital twins, mobility data spaces, and climate-neutral city initiatives.
As an operator with a nationwide footprint, experience in European projects such as MetaCCAZE and SUM, and direct engagement with cities and citizens, we believe we can contribute valuable real-world deployment capabilities, mobility data, and living-lab environments that help validate and scale innovative solutions.
Looking ahead, we see significant potential to work together on Horizon Europe and other European initiatives that focus on climate-neutral cities, smart mobility, and digital transport ecosystems. We believe that combining ERTICO's leadership in innovation and consortium building with nextbike Cyprus's operational expertise and deployment capacity can accelerate the transition from research and innovation to measurable impact on the ground.
Ultimately, what makes the ERTICO Partnership unique is its ability to turn collaboration into action. For us, the partnership represents an opportunity not only to participate in Europe's mobility transformation, but to actively contribute to shaping and deploying the next generation of sustainable, connected, and citizen-centric mobility solutions.
If the ERTICO Partnership was a headline, a keyword, or a short phrase, how would you capture its essence, and why?
Turning European mobility vision into real-world impact.
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Curious about our European foothold and initiatives? As ERTICO celebrates 35 years of collaboration and innovation in intelligent mobility this year, take a closer look at the ERTICO Partnership video and download our Partnership Brochure to learn more about the opportunities, offers and benefits of being part of the Partnership.