With support from the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), the City of Bogotá structured a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to deploy an inclusive bikeshare system, mobilising EUR 8.5 million in private equity. The project overcame a critical regulatory barrier: Colombian law did not recognise bicycles as an essential means of public transport, limiting cities’ access to alternative financing sources. CFF’s technical assistance helped resolve this legal gap and prepare a finance-ready project with a risk-balanced structure between public and private sectors. The project showed positive results, and is projected to contribute to future CO2 emissions reductions. Gender mainstreaming was embedded from the outset, and the model has been replicated in three additional Colombian cities, establishing the country’s first national cluster of public bikeshare systems.
Mobilising private capital for Bogotá’s inclusive PPP bikeshare system
Abstract
Bogotá, with its extensive network of cycleways and a strong cycling culture, was well-positioned to deploy a public bikeshare system (PBS) that could extend first- and last-mile connectivity to the city’s bus rapid transit network. However, the project faced a binding constraint that illustrates the broader regulatory challenges of mobilising private capital for urban infrastructure in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
The Colombian legal framework did not recognise bicycles as an essential means of public transport. This legal gap had direct financial consequences: it prevented cities from accessing alternative sources of financing that were available for other recognised transport modes. Without legal recognition, bikeshare projects could not be structured as formal public service concessions, limiting the contractual frameworks available to attract private operators and investors. The challenge was not a lack of private sector interest, but a regulatory environment that made it impossible to structure a bankable transaction.
Beyond the regulatory barrier, Bogotá’s municipal administration lacked the specialised technical capacity to prepare a financially sound bikeshare project. The combination of a regulatory and a project preparation gap created a situation where a viable and climate-positive urban infrastructure project could not move forward without targeted external support.
The C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), jointly implemented by GIZ and C40 Cities and funded by BMZ and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), provided technical assistance (TA) to the City of Bogotá between 2018 and 2021. CFF’s support addressed both the regulatory and project preparation barriers through an integrated approach that combined policy advocacy, financial structuring, and inclusive design.
Resolving the regulatory barrier: CFF supported the City of Bogotá in advocating for legal reforms that would recognise bicycles as a legitimate mode of public transport under Colombian law. This upstream work was essential: without legal recognition, the PPP structure that would ultimately mobilise private capital could not be legally constituted. The regulatory reform opened the door not only for Bogotá but for all Colombian cities seeking to finance cycling infrastructure through public-private partnerships.
Structuring the PPP: With the regulatory pathway cleared, CFF helped Bogotá design a PPP structured as a Contract for Administration, Maintenance and Economic Use of Public Space (CAMEP). Under this model, the city grants a private operator the right to deploy and operate the bikeshare system on public land, while the operator provides the capital investment, bicycles, stations, technology platform, and assumes operational risk. The CAMEP structure was specifically chosen because it balances risk between the public and private sectors: the city retains ownership of the public space and sets service standards, while the private operator bears the commercial risk of system operation. The total project size was EUR 8.5 million.
Gender mainstreaming. Gender was integrated into the project from the outset, not as an add-on but as a core design principle. More than 425 individuals of different ages and ethnic groups, 54% of whom were women, participated in diagnostic processes during the planning phase to identify gender gaps in bicycle use.
Note: CAMEP = Contract for Administration, Maintenance and Economic Use of Public Space. CFF = C40 Cities Finance Facility.
Source: Adapted from CFF project documentation and City of Bogotá.
The Bogotá bikeshare system is now operational, with 300 stations across 6 localities and a fleet of 3,300 bicycles serving approximately 81,000 users per month. The system is integrated into the city’s broader mobility network, providing first- and last-mile connectivity to public transit. Over its 25-year projected lifecycle, the system is expected to reduce emissions by 9,000 tCO2e through modal shift from motorised transport to cycling.
The case demonstrates several important lessons for mobilising private capital for urban infrastructure in EMDEs. First, upstream TA that resolves regulatory barriers can unlock private investment that would otherwise not materialise, the EUR 8.5 million in private equity was not contingent on concessional finance or guarantees, but on the existence of a legal framework that permitted the PPP structure. Second, the CAMEP model offers a replicable contractual framework for urban services that use public space by clearly allocating risk between public and private parties without requiring complex financial engineering.
Third, and perhaps most significantly, the model has already been replicated. CFF extended its support beyond Bogotá to the cities of Bucaramanga, Cali, and Montería, establishing Colombia’s first national cluster of public bikeshare systems. This cluster approach, where multiple cities in the same country benefit from shared regulatory frameworks, standardised contractual models, and peer-to-peer learning, demonstrates that the impact of targeted TA can be multiplied when it addresses systemic barriers rather than individual projects. The peer exchange between cities proved instrumental in advancing the project and accelerating adoption across the country.
For policymakers and development finance providers, the implication is that technical assistance for regulatory reform and project preparation, delivered upstream of capital deployment, can be among the most capital-efficient forms of development finance. In this case, CFF’s TA investment unlocked EUR 8.5 million in private equity without the need for guarantees, concessional debt, or viability gap funding. The binding constraint was not financial but regulatory, and addressing it required policy expertise rather than capital.
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