The taxi-hailing company, Bolt Technologies, has received $109 million in funding from London-based investment firm Naya Capital Management.
According to the company, they will use the funding to increase its market share in a sector hurt by COVID-19.
The funding, therefore, moves the company’s valuation to $1.9 billion, bringing its total investment amount raised to over €300 Million since inception.
“We continue to improve our operations to meet the demands of our customers. Even though the crisis has temporarily changed how we move, the long-term trends that drive on demand mobility such as declining personal car ownership or the shift towards greener transportation continue to grow.”
Bolt CEO, Markus Villig
Meanwhile, its rival company, Uber, is battling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic that has seen a massive decline in ride-hailing services as people worldwide resort to stay-at-home measures. Furthermore, it announced plans to lay off 3700 employees working in customer support and recruiting teams globally, even as its CEO is forgoing the base salary for the rest of the year.
On the Other hand, the car rental giant, Hertz, filed for bankruptcy protection on 22nd May 2020, citing a massive decline in revenue and future bookings resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic. This comes after the company’s debt amounted to $19 billion, and nearly 700,000 vehicles remained idle due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It already laid off 12,000 workers and furloughed an additional 4,000 employees—25% of its workforce.
Bolt is an Estonian ride-sharing company founded and headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. It develops and operates the Bolt mobile application, which allows people to request a taxi or private driver from their smartphone, as well as electric scooters and food delivery services.
As of December 2019, the firm operated in 35 countries in Europe, Africa, North Africa, West Asia, North America, and Australia.
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