Bolt is an Estonian transportation platform company founded and headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. The company's services range from ride-hailing to micromobility and food delivery. As of December 2019, Bolt operates in over 150 cities in 35 countries across Europe, Africa, North Africa, West Asia and North America. The company has 30 million customers globally and more than 1 million drivers use the platform to offer rides.
History
Bolt was founded by Markus Villig in 2013, with a vision to aggregate all Tallinn and Riga taxis into one platform. With €5,000 from his parents, who also helped him by doing customer support outside of their regular working hours, he hired a developer to help him launch the business, then called mTakso. The service was launched in August 2013 and in 2014 it went on to foreign shores. , Portugal. In 2017, Taxify launched its services in London by acquiring a local taxi company with a licence to operate, but was forced by Transport for London to shut down its services. The company has filed a new licence application with plans to reopen services in London. Following the setback in London, Taxify launched its services in Paris and Lisbon. In September 2018, the company announced expanding into dockless electric scooters and launched them in Paris under the new Bolt brand. The company also said it planned to release scooters in several other European and Australian cities where their app was already established, but would also launch in new markets where they have been unable to offer ride-hailing services because of regulatory roadblocks, including Germany and Spain. In June 2019, Bolt re-launched in London with 20,000 drivers registered on the platform. In August 2019, the company rolled out its food delivery service, Bolt Food. Bolt Food launched in Tallinn, with the plans to expand to more cities in Europe and Africa later this year. In September 2019, Bolt announced its "Green Plan", an initiative to reduce the ecological footprint of the transportation industry and Bolt as a company. The Green Plan goals include offsetting Bolt's contribution to the CO₂ emissions of the European transportation sector by at least 5 million tonnes by 2025 and adding more green ride-types for passengers to choose from. In March 2020, Bolt was ranked third in the FT 1000: Europe's Fastest Growing Companies 2020 published by the Financial Times.
Financing
Prior to announcing a strategic partnership with Didi Chuxing, Taxify had raised over €2 million in investment capital from Estonian and Finnish angel investors. In August 2017, Didi Chuxing invested an undisclosed amount believed to be an "eight-figure U.S. dollar sum". A May 2018 funding round with a $175 million investment from Daimler, Didi and others led to a 1 billion dollar valuation for the company, making it a unicorn. In January 2020, the European Investment Bank signed a EUR 50 million venture debt facility with Bolt. The financing, supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments, is to boost Bolt's product development in areas where technology can improve the safety, reliability and sustainability of its services. This includes investment in existing services such as ride-hailing and food delivery, as well as the development of new products.
Expanded into electric scooters in September 2018 and became the first platform integrating these with ride-hailing services in one app.
Rebranded to Bolt and reached 25 million passengers in February 2019.
Launched in London in June 2019.
Launched in Tunis in July 2019.
Launched Bolt Food in August 2019.
Services
Bolt operates their app, which enables people to hail rides from their smartphones. The application is available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and AppGallery for Huawei phones. Riders must choose a payment method: cash, credit card or mobile carrier billing before they can use the service. The customer requests a ride and confirms their pick-up location. Once the driver accepts the trip, the customer will be able to see the driver's name and car details. After the ride is completed both driver and the rider can rate each other.
Safety
Bolt has stressed the importance of customer safety. All drivers undergo a criminal background check and in-person training. Drivers are also required to be at least 21 years old and have had a driver's license for at least 3 years. Bolt has a zero-tolerance policy against alcohol and drug use. In Nigeria, Bolt has included an SOS button for drivers that sends real time emergency alerts to the Lagos State Emergency Response Agency. In London, an in-app SOS button links riders and drivers with the emergency services.
