Bolt plans to drive the sharing economy

Since its launch 10 years ago, Estonian mobility platform Bolt has lived up to its name. From its genesis as a ride-hailing service, it has rapidly expanded to offer scooter rentals, food and grocery delivery, and carsharing. It claims to be Europe’s first mobility super-app, was valued at €7.4bn at its latest fundraising, and has made multiple appearances on the Financial Times’s annual list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies.

Powered by its vision of a future without personal cars — and the pollution and congestion they create — Bolt now operates in 48 countries across its home region, plus Africa, Latin America and Asia. “In some markets with strategic enablers, ride-hailing really catches on — like in Thailand, where we launched in 2020 and are now competing head-to-head with Grab, who has been there for a decade,” says Aastha Yadav, Bolt’s head of strategy. But she concedes that uptake can be slower in other countries, like El Salvador where “the business is in hibernation”.

In choosing where to invest next, she says Bolt’s decisions are driven by two considerations. First is its ability to win the market, given existing competition and whether it has a foothold through its other mobility services. Second is the market’s attractiveness, which includes its size, Bolt’s local growth expectations and, in the case of scooters and carsharing, access to capital. “With rentals we’re debt-financed so it helps to find local capital to acquire the vehicles,” she says.