Bolt announces ongoing post-pandemic growth to mark ninth anniversary

We’ve just announced a quadrupling of our business since the pandemic started, recording our most successful month on record in July 2022.

We launched two new products during the pandemic and now have operations in 45 countries and over 500 cities across Europe and Africa — an increase of over 200% before the pandemic. 

Bolt’s continuous growth 

Globally, we’ve tripled our customer base to over 100 million since the beginning of  2020, added more than two million new drivers to the platform, and doubled the size of our workforce to more than 3000 employees. 

We’ve also opened several new offices over the past year, including engineering hubs in Berlin and Nairobi. And we continue to advertise over 350 open roles with a view to hiring 700 more employees by the end of 2022. 

Celebrating the ninth anniversary

Markus Villig, Bolt’s CEO, founded the company in Tallinn, Estonia, in August 2013. Then just a teenager, Markus personally recruited the first drivers to the platform on the streets of Tallinn and has since built a business valued at €7.6bn at the time of its latest funding round.

“The pandemic was the most significant economic shock in generations, so hitting milestones like 100 million customers and operations in over 500 cities are achievements we’re really proud of. 

When Bolt was founded, our mission was to challenge the traditional taxi industry in Tallinn through a new ride-hailing service. Now, our size and the range of products we offer put us in a unique position to revolutionise how people move around the cities. By providing an alternative to private cars, we can help create cities that are greener, safer and more pleasant to live in.

“It’s important to stay grounded, though — rising inflation and interest rates mean we have to be disciplined when assessing how and in what markets we invest. We’ll prioritise growth efforts in our existing markets instead of expanding our services into new countries. Our culture of frugality helped us come out of the pandemic in a strong position, but the challenges will not stop, and the team is focused on preparing for and responding to them.”

Initially launched in Nigeria in 2016 as Taxify, Bolt rebranded to better reflect the company’s vision to build a more convenient and safe future of urban mobility. Since its inception, Bolt has gone on to expand into 25 states, and 33 cities offering both ride-hailing and food delivery services. Regional Manager for Bolt in West Africa, Ireoluwa Obatoki says: “We are happy to see the post-pandemic growth that the business has achieved. When we first launched in Nigeria, our mission was to transform the ride-hailing and mobility sector. Scaling during the pandemic was a challenge but our focus on providing seamless mobility services to Nigerians ensured that we maintained growth. Our business in Nigeria is built on efficiency and seamless mobility services for riders while offering drivers a flexible opportunity to earn more income.”

In order to further advance our goal of redefining mobility in Nigeria, Bolt is working to establish a presence in all 36 states. This will provide Nigerians with access to reasonably priced, safe, and convenient transportation, food delivery services and much more.

Join the ride

Bolt is the first European super-app with over 100 million customers in over 45 countries across Europe and Africa. We seek to accelerate the transition from owned cars to shared mobility, offering better alternatives for every use case.

If you support our vision and want to help us build cities for people, not cars, check out our open vacancies and join us on our journey.