Bolt

Bolt Technology OU is an Estonian mobility company founded in Tallinn in 2013 by Markus Villig, who started the business at nineteen with a 5,000 euro loan from his family and recruited the first drivers himself on the streets of Tallinn. The company launched as Taxify and rebranded to Bolt in 2019.

Bolt operates a single consumer application spanning several transport and delivery businesses: ride-hailing, which accounts for the large majority of revenue; shared e-scooters and e-bikes; Bolt Food restaurant delivery; Bolt Market grocery delivery; Bolt Drive car-sharing; and a package delivery service, Bolt Send, launched in July 2026. The company says it serves 200 million customers and 4.5 million driver and courier partners across more than 50 countries.

Its geographic footprint distinguishes it from Uber and its European peers. Alongside Western and Central European cities, Bolt has built substantial positions in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and has more recently entered Canada and New Zealand. Micromobility runs in more than 260 European cities and food delivery in over 80 cities across Europe and Africa.

Bolt reported its first full-year profit in 2025, with revenue of 2.27 billion euros, up 14 percent year on year, an operating profit of 19.5 million euros and net income of 0.9 million euros. It employed 4,284 people at the end of that year and paid 49 million euros in labour taxes in Estonia.

The company is now directing capital towards autonomous vehicles. During 2026 it announced partnerships with Pony.ai and Stellantis to deploy Level 4 vehicles in Europe, a testing programme in Luxembourg, and work with NVIDIA on the DRIVE Hyperion platform, with a stated ambition of 100,000 autonomous vehicles by 2035. Bolt remains privately held; chief executive Markus Villig described a 220 million euro revolving credit facility closed in May 2024 as part of working towards being IPO-ready, and no listing has been announced.