Bolt now services 1 million drivers and couriers in Africa, hopes to hit profitability in 12 months

Ride-hailing company, Bolt is now servicing 1 million drivers in Africa. This is according to a statement sent to Technext by the company. 

Celebrating its 10th year as a business, the company which has always touted its drivers as the centerpiece of its operations, announced that it now has more than 3.5 million drivers and couriers around the world. Of this number, the company says 1 million are in Africa alone. This represents 28.5% of its global driver and courier population.

Bolt was founded as Taxify in 2013 by Markus Villig in Tallinn, Estonia. He was 19 years old at the time. But the ride-hailing company wouldn’t make it to Africa until 3 years later when it first launched in South Africa in 2016. Nigeria and Kenya would follow later in the same year.

The company which initially started up as a ride-hailing company, has undergone dramatic growth in recent years. It launched its food delivery service, Bolt Food in 2019, followed by scooter rentals in 2020, and grocery delivery and car-sharing in 2021.

Bolt crosses 150 million users milestone 

Across these verticals, the company also announced that it has crossed the 150 million users milestone. These users are mostly in its markets spread out across 45 countries and 500 cities. This is even as it looks to become fully profitable within the next 12 months, thus becoming the first European mobility platform to become fully profitable.

The company attributed this to its significantly increased revenue despite significant headwinds including a surge in inflation, rising interest rates and an uncertain macroeconomic outlook across many markets.

Speaking on this, Founder and CEO of Bolt, Markus Villig, attributed these successes to the company’s core principles that have remained the same since it was founded ten years ago.

By being the most operationally efficient mobility platform in the world we can provide incredible value to our customers and partners. Having great service and attractive prices drive our industry leading growth, and we’re proud to now serve 150 million customers across 45 countries. This extraordinary scale will allow us to reach profitability over the next 12 months. 

Markus Villig

Bolt to go public

The company also indicated that it plans to go public and preparations are already underway. Bolt would become only the second ride-hailing company to go public following Uber’s IPO in 2019.

But that didn’t go too well for Uber. Initially valued at as much as $120 billion before its IPO, Uber went public on May 9, 2019 only to make history with the biggest first-day dollar loss in U.S. history according to Investopedia. Since then, Uber has worked on becoming profitable, a state it is yet to achieve.

To avoid a similar fate, Bolt has appointed Mikko Salovaara as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Founder and CEO, Villig believes that bringing Salovaara’s expertise on board at this crucial time will be invaluable as it focuses on long-term and sustainable growth, and begin its preparations for IPO.

Speaking on his appointment, Mikko Salovaara said he looks forward to being part of this next stage in Bolt’s journey as the business prepares for IPO.

“In an industry where it is notoriously hard to operate profitably, Bolt stands head and shoulders above its competitors. The culture of maximising operational efficiency which was instilled by Markus ten years ago continues to guide the business today and has left Bolt well-positioned to reach and maintain long term profitability,” the new CTO said.