Bolt, an Estonian transportation service startup with global traction, has just launched its food delivery service in downtown Kyiv (Kiev). ‘Bolt Food’ offers meal delivery from over 150 restaurants, from fast food chains to small restaurants.
Bolt’s country manager in Ukraine Taras Potichniy said the company’s couriers will start delivering to additional districts of the capital in a few days or weeks.
Bolt entered the Ukrainian market as early as 2016 — three years after company launch — with its taxi-hailing service. In August this year, the Baltic startup started renting electric scooters throughout Kyiv.
All scooters are disinfected due to the coronavirus pandemic, with customers offered to use hand sanitizers and wear disposable gloves.
Initially christened ‘Taxify,’ Bolt launched in 2013 by Markus Villig, then a 19 year-old high-school student, with the aim to aggregate all Tallinn and Riga taxis into a single platform. Since then the company extended its activity to some 35 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America. With a set of services ranging from ride-hailing, to scooter-sharing system, to food delivery, it claims to have generated some €150 million in revenue in 2019.
In September 2019, the startup announced an initiative to reduce the ecological footprint of its operations and in the transportation industry more broadly.
In March 2020, Bolt was ranked number three in the Financial Times ranking of “Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2020.”
