Bolt, an Estonia-based ride hailing service backed by peer Didi Chuxing and car manufacturer Daimler, completed a €600m ($713m) funding round today backed by investors including venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Fund managers Tekne and Ghisallo also contributed to the round, as did existing shareholders G Squared, D1 Capital Partners and Naya Capital. The round valued Bolt at more than $4.75bn.
Founded in 2013, Bolt provides on-demand ride-hailing and car sharing, as well as food delivery services, and e-scooter and e-bike rentals. It will use the money to bolster its new grocery delivery service, Bolt Market, and accelerate an expansion of its existing offering.
Bolt is also looking to enter 10 European markets over the next several months, with its sights set on the Baltics and Central Europe, as well as Croatia, Romania, Portugal and Sweden.
Markus Villig, chief executive of Bolt, said: “Bolt’s mission is to make urban travel affordable and sustainable. We are building a future where people are not forced to buy cars that cause traffic and pollution, but use on-demand transport when they need it.
“After seven years of relentless execution, Bolt’s mobility and delivery products offer a better alternative to almost every use case a car serves. I am thrilled to bring these products to millions of customers around Europe and Africa, taking the emphasis off cars and giving cities back to the people.”
Bolt secured $23.8m from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation in March this year. D1 Capital led a $182m round in December 2020, when Darsana Capital Partners also took part.
Naya Capital supplied $110m in May 2020, having already contributed to a $67m series C round in 2019 together with Activant Capital, Tribe Capital, Nordic Ninjas, Creandum, Invenfin, Superangel and G Squared.
Daimler injected more than $100m as a part of a $175m round in 2018 that featured Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and Taavet Hinrikus. Didi Chuxing had earlier supplied an undisclosed sum in 2017.
Adtech producer Adcash was among the investors in a $1.7m round in 2014 together with Rubylight and TMT Investments. Bolt’s early backers reportedly also include Spring Capital.
