Taxify announces plans to unveil Bolt: E-scooter startups war heats up in Europe

Recently, I visited Paris and while walking down the sidewalks, all I could see was tourists and locals zipping all the way on the electric scooters everywhere in the city. The most common ones were Lime electric scooter and also Bird, and both the startups are from the U.S. These electric scooters can be unlocked via smartphones, and are quite safe and a comfortable mode of transportation in this European city.

One can say, there’s a new wave of scooter sharing startups is emerging which has already captured the US market and now it’s catching up with the European countries. Best part! They’re getting millions of investment as well. The latest one to join the bandwagon is ‘Bolt’ from Txfy (a smart short form of Taxify).

In a company’s tweet, the Estonian ride-sharing company Taxify claimed to be the first transportation platform to bring scooter sharing and ride-hailing together in one mobile app. The European rivals of Uber — Taxify has reportedly announced that they will launch the services in Paris, France initially and then also release scooters in ‘several other European and Australian cities, where Taxify is already present.

How does it work?

Reportedly, the Bolt electric scooter ride from Taxify will cost around 15 cents per minute, with a minimum fare of €1. Further, the user will be able to unlock the GPS tracked scooters by scanning the QR-code on the scooter using the Taxify app. Meanwhile, reportedly Taxify will also collect the scooters in the evenings for recharging.

For those who are not aware, Taxify was founded by Markus Villig in 2013. It’s one of the fastest-growing ride-hailing platform in Europe and Africa with investors including Daimler, China’s Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus. Currently, Taxify has more than 10 million users in more than 25 countries globally.

This year, the company also scored $175 million of funding from Daimler, Didi Chuxing and others. Further, Taxify has also reached $1 billion valuation mark and is competing head-to-head with ride-sharing tech unicorns including Uber, Lyft and more.

While e-scooter are becoming increasingly popular in Europe, it will be exciting to see how Bolt from Taxify will compete with two strong US-based mobility startups. Further, we’re also hoping that Taxify could launch its e-scooters in other Northen European countries including the Netherlands.

Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.