Bolt, formerly Taxify, has launched Bolt Food, its food delivery service to take on Glovo, Uber Eats, Delivery Hero among others, as the firm moves to become the global on-demand transportation after rebranding from Taxify.
Bolt Food is starting in Tallinn, Estonia then into more cities in Europe over the next 12 weeks including Latvia and Lithuania. 2020 will see a further burst of global launches across Europe and Africa.
Recently, the firm raised $67 million to expand across the globe.
Delivery Hero Acquisitions
Bolt Food’s biggest competitor will be Delivery Hero which runs hipMenu, an online food delivery marketplace in Romania with leadership positions in many cities, iFood’s online food delivery operations in Argentina and recently invested EUR 51m for a 16 percent stake in Glovo, the leading European, on-demand and multi- vertical delivery platform based in Spain with operations in Spain, Italy, France and many other markets, making Delivery Hero its largest minority shareholder.
According to Jevgeni Kabanov, Chief Product Officer, Bolt: “Our ride-hailing business is built on the twin pillars of efficiency and offering drivers and passengers alike the best deal on the market. We’re eager to bring this mindset to food delivery and offer a lower price of delivery compared to other platforms while making sure our couriers get the best support.”
New verticals
The launch of Bolt Food marks the platform’s latest expansion into new transportation services after the firm’s recent rebrand from Taxify into Bolt. Last year, Bolt launched electric scooter rentals to extend beyond private cars and e-scooters to motorcycles.
Restaurants and couriers can sign up with Bolt Food at food.bolt.eu. To use the new service, customers need to download the Bolt Food app and search for restaurants based on location. Bolt Food’s launch in Tallinn will be marked by free delivery.
“We have more than 25 million people around the world using Bolt and food delivery has been a popular request for quite some time. Restaurants working with Bolt Food will find value in this loyal customer base, the people who already love and trust the brand, as well as benefiting from new customers attracted by the seamless and simple experience we have built over time from our ride-hailing business.”
Last June Bolt launched its ride-hailing app in London offering a better service and lower fares for passengers as well as more take-home pay for drivers. Bolt introduced improved safety for Londoners in its app and brings much-needed competition to on-demand transport in the UK’s capital city. The London launch followed 2019 launches in Stockholm and St Petersburg.
25 million customers in 30 countries
Now serving more than 25 million customers in 30 countries across Europe and Africa, Taxify’s recent name change to Bolt reflects the widened scope of the business that now extends to private cars, e-scooters and motorcycles as well as food delivery.
