Shared mobility platform Bolt has announced its largest-ever funding round to further scale its existing products and accelerate the transition from owned cars to shared mobility in cities.
The €628m (£523m) investment round was led by Sequoia Capital and Fidelity Management and Research with participation from Whale Rock, Owl Rock, D1, G Squared, Tekne, Ghisallo, and others, and takes Bolt’s valuation to €7.4bn (£6.1bn).
Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Bolt, said: “For decades, cities have been built for cars, not people. That has led to unsustainable traffic, pollution and loss of public space to parking places. We think this approach is outdated.
“We’re partnering with cities to help people make the switch toward light vehicles such as scooters and e-bikes and shared mobility options like ride-hailing and car-sharing to transform urban areas back into sustainable, people-friendly spaces.”
Last month, Bolt announced a range of safety features to be incorporated on its scooter-sharing network, including a tandem riding prevention system, which can detect more than one person riding a scooter at the same time, a cognitive reaction test to ensure riders stay as safe as possible, and a skid prevention system.
Scooter-sharing is one part of Bolt’s suite of mobility and delivery products, which are currently used by more than 100 million customers in 45 countries and over 400 cities across Europe and Africa.
Other products include its ride-hailing service; Bolt Drive car-sharing service; Bolt Food, which enables customers to order meals from restaurants; and Bolt Market, a 15-minute grocery delivery service.
