Tallinn-based Bolt acquires Danish taxi startup Viggo: Know more

Tallinn-based Bolt, a transportation platform providing ride-hailing, micromobility, and food delivery services in Europe, announced that it has acquired Danish taxi startup Viggo for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2019, Viggo is electrifying urban mobility with ultra-fast EV chargers and EV-based ride-hailing.

The company has 300 electric cars and 450,000 users in Copenhagen and Aarhus.

The acquisition allows Bolt to enter the Danish ride-hailing market for the first time, although it already has an e-bike rental service in Copenhagen.

“We have always had a high bar for M&A, but we share Viggo’s mission to improve cities and were impressed by their fully electric operations. The acquisition means we will become the largest ride-hailing operator in Denmark,” Bolt founder and CEO Markus Villig told Sifted,

Bolt also announced a new partnership with another Danish taxi company, Taxi 4×27, to make available the company’s fleet of over 600 vehicles on its platform.

The announcement comes a year after raising €220M syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF).

Bolt: Offering diverse on-demand options

Founded by Markus Villig, Martin Villig, and Oliver Leisalu, in 2014, Bolt (previously known as mTakso) is a global transportation app that offers on-demand services for various purposes, including taxis, shared vehicles, e-bikes, e-scooters, and food and grocery delivery.

Currently, the company’s products include:

• Bolt Rides
• Bolt Scooters and E-bikes 
• Bolt Food, delivers ready-made meals from restaurants
• Bolt Market, a grocery delivery service
• Bolt Drive, free-floating car-sharing service
• Bolt Business, a corporate mobility service

The Bolt app offers low-cost rides, fast arrival times, transparent pricing, and in-app payments to enable seamless transactions using various payment methods, such as credit/debit cards or Apple Pay.

The mobility platform claims that all its rides in Europe are 100 per cent carbon-neutral as part of its Green Plan, a long-term commitment to reduce the ecological footprint of the company.

Last year, the company also introduced its new in-house scooter model Bolt 6, equipped with various sensors and microprocessors, data mining capabilities, and precision technologies, setting benchmarks for safety, sustainability, and user experience.