European company Bolt has received funding to develop areas
Bolt received €150 million in funding in its latest round. This was the largest investment in the history of the cab ordering platform. D1 Capital Partners and Darsana invested in the European platform.
According to the company’s representatives, the received funds will be used for the development and improvement of the level of services. Particular attention will be paid to security, and the investment will also go to the scaling of the food delivery service, which operates in the European countries and Africa.
Bolt regularly improves its ridesharing and micromobility processes. In addition, not long ago the platform implemented an innovation aimed at increasing the level of travel safety. A new functionality was added to the app – an SOS button, which both passengers and drivers can use if necessary. For the time being, this change concerns the platform for African countries, but later it will appear for other regions as well.
When users press this one, the app automatically sends a notification to the emergency services that an accident or other incident has occurred.
In addition to the cab service, Bolt is developing an electric scooter rental business. The company has launched a new generation device on the market. Representatives of the service note that the new line of electric scooters has an increased level of safety, an updated design with increased stability. Now the device will be much easier to control, it is more maneuverable. Bolt electric scooters have sensors, which minimize the risk of accidents.
In the near future, the developer will present a number of innovations that will make the service more comfortable for users. There will be an opportunity to monitor the trip in automatic mode, for which artificial intelligence technologies are used. It will allow forecasting more accurately the risk of various accidents that can happen during the trip.
Last year, despite the difficult situation due to the pandemic, the service Bolt showed impressive growth. The number of users almost doubled. In addition, in 2020 were launched such services as food delivery, ride-hailing, increased the number of cities, where the rental of electric scooters and bicycles from the company, now there are 50.
This year, the functionality of the driver’s face recognition and travel monitoring has been implemented, which increased the safety of movement.
At the moment the service is available in more than 200 cities in 40 countries around the world, about 50 million people use cab services. The company plans to expand electric scooter rentals to another 100 cities, as well as to develop its food delivery business, which now operates in 16 countries.
Bolt is also not moving away from its main priority – a carbon-neutral position. All vehicles used in the service are environmentally friendly.
