Bolt (company)

Bolt (official name Bolt Technology OÜ) is an Estonian multinational mobility company that offers ride-hailing, micromobility rental, food and grocery delivery (via the Bolt Food app), and carsharing services. The company is headquartered in Tallinn and operates in over 850 cities in more than 50 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

History

The company was founded in 2013 as Taxify by Markus Villig, then a 19-year-old high-school student. Markus built the prototype of the app while personally recruiting drivers on the streets of Tallinn after receiving a €5000 loan from his family.[2]

The service was launched in Tallinn, Estonia in August 2013, and by 2014, it was operating abroad including in Latvia and Lithuania. By 2016, Bolt had expanded to South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. In April 2017, it expanded to Baku and Malta.[3]

Products

Ridesharing

Bolt started out as a ridesharing company. The service is offered under the name Bolt Rides. As of 2026, Bolt Rides is available in over 600 cities worldwide[31]. Rides can be booked via Bolt's mobile application, and can be scheduled in advance.

In 2024, ridesharing services accounted for 82 percent of Bolt's revenue[32].

Bolt e-scooters

In September 2018, the company announced it was expanding into micromobility services. After launching scooters in Paris, Bolt expanded its micromobility operations across Europe.[33] In November 2022, Bolt scooters were integrated into the Norwegian MaaS application, Ruter,[34] and in May 2023 — into Berlin’s mobility app, Jelbi.[35] As of February 2023, Bolt has operations in 260 cities across 25 countries and 250,000 shared vehicles available for rental.[36] In June 2023, Bolt introduced their new scooter model — Bolt 6.[37]

Bolt e-bikes

Two years after launching e-scooters, in May 2020, Bolt launched e-bikes in Paris, France.[38] And in the following years expanded its e-bike operations across many major European cities.[39]

Bolt Drive

In May 2021, Bolt launched a car-sharing service, Bolt Drive.[40] Bolt Drive launched in Tallinn, Estonia, and has since expanded to six more countries — Latvia,[41] Lithuania,[42] Germany,[43] Poland, Czechia and Portugal. In May 2023, Bolt entered into leasing framework agreements for a total of €126m with Luminor and Swedbank to enable the expansion of Bolt Drive in the Baltic countries.[44] It had 1,500 car-sharing vehicles in Vilnius 18 months after launch.[45]

Self-driving cars

In August 2019, Bolt and the University of Tartu announced a partnership on an applied research project to develop technology for self-driving cars.[47] In April 2021, Bolt and the University of Tartu expanded their cooperation on the AV project, signing a new 5-year agreement designed to further develop the technical capabilities of the university's autonomous driving lab in the areas of artificial intelligence and maps and algorithms.[48]

In late 2025, Bolt announced its aim to introduce driverless cars to its platform in Europe and signed its first autonomous vehicle partnerships with Pony.ai [49] and Stellantis and its long-term ambition to have 100,000 autonomous vehicles on the Bolt platform by 2035.[50]

Grocery delivery service

In 2021, Bolt launched grocery delivery service in the Baltic States.[51][52] It later expanded to Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland and elsewhere.[53][54] Bolt plans to eventually deliver groceries with self-driving robots, in partnership with Starship Technologies.[55]

native name	Bolt Technology OÜ
native name lang	et
former name	mTakso, Taxify
industry	Transportation Mobility as a service
founded	August 2013
founder	Markus Villig
hq location	Tallinn, Estonia
area served	50 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America
products	Mobile app, website
services	Ridesharing company, scooter-sharing system, food delivery, grocery delivery, car-sharing
revenue	€2 billion (2024)‡R1R‡
net income	-€102 million (2024)
website	bolt.eu

History

Financing