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Bolt raises £524 million in funding to drive expansion into grocery deliveries and e-mobility Mark Bursa Ride hailing company Bolt has raised a further £524 million in funds to help it expand into new sectors such as electric scooter rentals and grocery deliveries. Estonia-based Bolt, founded in 2013 as an Uber rival, has raised the new investment from US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and retirement investor Fidelity, as well as other investment companies. Bolt claims the new round of investment leaves it valued at £6 billion In total, Bolt has now raised around £1.44 billion. Bolt launched in London in 2019. It has expanded into other cities and towns, but only offers a ride hailing service in the UK. Now it could launch e-scooter and e-bike rentals in the UK, along with a takeaway delivery service, which competes with the likes of Just East, and a 15-minute grocery delivery service called Bolt Market, currently operating in 10 European countries. The plan is to expand the service to hundreds of stores by the end of 2022.
CEO and founder Markus Villig said: “Over the past eight years we have developed products that offer better and more affordable alternatives for almost every purpose a private car serves. We’re partnering with
cities to help people make the switch towards light vehicles such as scooters and e-bikes and shared mobility options like ride-hailing and car-sharing to transform urban areas back into sustainable, people-friendly spaces.”
Uber rival Bolt plans to launch in Hull despite ongoing driver shortages Bolt has is preparing to launch operations in Hull. The ridehailing operator has taken out advertising on Facebook, asking licenced private hire drivers to sign up in the Yorkshire city. Bolt is offering drivers 0% commission for the first month of its operations rather than the regular 15%, though it has not yet specified a launch date for the service. Bolt has held a
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private hire licence in the city since May 2021. Bolt currently operates in 15 UK cities, including London, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham and Birmingham. It is continuing to grow through
launching direct subsidiaries in cities, unlike rival Uber, which stopped opening direct subsidiaries in 2017 and is now growing via its Local Cab service, under which jobs are given to local private hire
operators that use the Autocab dispatch platform. Uber bought Autocab in 2020. Bolt’s move comes as Hull is currently experiencing a shortage in taxi drivers, which means customers are having to book well in advance. Local operators have lost drivers due to the pandemic, Brexit and other factors. Hull Cars owner Chris Davidson earlier told local media his firm had lost about 150 drivers since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, saying drivers had quit during lockdowns to take up delivery and other jobs, while Brexit and ongoing local traffic problems were contributing to the drop in numbers.
FEBRUARY 2022
