Visma | Lease a Bike has launched a formal search for a new title sponsor, as the Dutch WorldTour team looks to keep pace with rivals whose budgets have climbed to €50–60 million.
The search is active as of this month, according to comments made to Belgian outlet Wielerflits. Current partners Visma, the Norwegian business software group, and Pon, the Dutch mobility conglomerate behind the Lease a Bike brand, remain committed to the team. However, Visma has told team management it will maintain its existing backing but will not underwrite further budget growth.
Team manager Richard Plugge is in discussions with several multinational corporations about taking over title naming rights. The team's priority is securing the funding needed to stay in what Plugge has called the "breakaway group" of the WorldTour's top five teams over the next five years.
The pressure is driven by escalating spending at the top of professional cycling. UAE Team Emirates-XRG operates on an estimated €50–60 million budget backed by state-level investment, according to analysis from La Gazetto dello Sport. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek have both moved to ownership models, where the title sponsor holds a majority stake in the team, enabling direct capital injections rather than fixed sponsorship fees. Visma | Lease a Bike's own budget sits at roughly €50 million.
Visma's corporate shift
Visma's decision to cap its investment is linked to a broader corporate realignment. The company, owned by private equity firm Hg Capital, has been preparing for an initial public offering in London valued at approximately €19 billion. According to the Financial Times, the IPO may be delayed from the first half of 2026 to later in the year due to a sell-off in software stocks and uncertainty around AI's impact on the sector.
It finished 2025 ranked second in the UCI world rankings and holds long-term contracts with core riders including Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike). Van Aert signed up to a 'lifetime contract' with Visma in 2024, and Jorgenson is signed until 2029.
Former professionals Bjarne Riis and Brian Holm have said that two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) could "double his salary" if he moved to a more aggressively funded rival.
Visma | Lease a Bike looks to keep pace with rivals whose ownership structures allow for the kind of spending that traditional sponsorship models struggle to match.
