Lyft acquires two growth-focused startups to drive more sign-ups

Ride hailing company Lyft has acquired two companies focused on growth, including customer acquisition, retention, referral programs and more. The companies being acquired are YesGraph, whose team and talent will join Lyft, and DataScore, whose growth team is coming over to the ride share provider.

The acquisitions are designed to help Lyft capitalize on its existing rapid pace of growth, which the company says has been “rapid” over the past year. Third-party data backs that up, suggesting that Lyft is seeing uncharacteristically high gains thanks in part to the difficulties faced by rival Uber. Lyft has also expanded to over 160 new cities during the past year alone, and already has seen more rides in 2017 than it provided during the entirety of 2016.

These new companies joining Lyft look designed to help press the gas pedal further on that pace of expansion, with a focus specifically on attracting more riders and drivers to the platform. YesGraph’s expertise is in building referral programs that reward customers for bringing in new ones, and Lyft says they’ll be focused on improving and building out the Lyft Driver Referral Program as part of the company.

DataScore’s team will be focused on scaling both driver and passenger sides of the equation, using their expertise in “customer acquisition, conversion and retention programs,” according to Lyft. DataScore’s tagline prior to the acquisition is “We help startups grow,” and they advertise “a data-driven marketing approach,” “powered by proprietary technology” to help make that happen.

This seems an acknowledgement on Lyft’s part that now is the time to aggressively pursue growth in order to capitalize on its position relative to industry leader Uber. Lyft has been doing a lot in terms of product and market work to help with that, but acquisitions focused on bringing in new users is also a smart use of its position, and its new funds, which include a $600 million round confirmed in April. The company did not disclose financial terms of either of these new acquisitions.