Shared micromobility startup Voi is on the hunt for acquisitions. And on CEO Frederik Hjelm’s wishlist is Bolt, the European mobility super-app greatest identified for ride-hailing.
Not that Bolt’s micromobility enterprise is essentially on the market — regardless of discuss of Voi buying the company’s scooter and bike arm. Bolt declined to remark when TechCrunch reached out.
“Bolt is a superb firm, however they’re primarily a ride-hailing firm,” Hjelm informed TechCrunch on stage on the Micromobility Industries roundtable in Brussels, the place he was joined by Chicken co-CEO Michael Washinushi and Dott/Tier CEO Henri Moissinac.
Hjelm mentioned Bolt’s problem is that it must be “extraordinarily good in a number of verticals.” Apart from ride-hailing, Bolt presents grocery and meals supply, in addition to automotive leases.
“Micromobility could be very tough, and it has the {hardware} side, however no community impact like how meals supply and ride-hailing [can lead to] grocery supply, as effectively,” Hjelm mentioned.
He famous most individuals who decide up a dockless e-scooter or e-bike are locals who prioritize expertise and affordability moderately than the power to make use of a “tremendous app” like Bolt.
When supplied an instance of riders who use micromobility providers as a result of they acknowledge the model — and won’t wish to obtain one other app — he caught to this thesis. Hjelm mentioned he doesn’t suppose model recognition is sufficient to make up for a worse person expertise.
After all, there’s no information proving that Voi presents a greater person expertise than Bolt. That didn’t cease others on the panel from becoming a member of the Bolt pile on.
“Bolt makes use of worth as a loss chief,” mentioned Chicken’s Washinushi, referring to Bolt’s potential to depend on income from its different operations to develop its micromobility enterprise at a loss. “They low cost the worth, and that’s how they purchase installs. My sense is that they don’t make an enormous funding in…actually good operations in micromobility.”
Washinushi famous that Chicken, in addition to Dott and Voi, use a number of information to rebalance automobiles.
“You possibly can dump 1000’s of automobiles and hope folks get rides, or you may… place half these automobiles on the proper place and proper time to optimize the rides and optimize the worth,” he mentioned. “And that’s [how] the enterprise has actually advanced previously two or three years… that, for us, makes it a really self-sustaining enterprise.”
In 2024, Chicken mentioned it achieved $19 million adjusted EBITDA profitability – fairly the feat for a corporation that had delisted from the inventory market and filed for chapter two years in the past. Voi additionally achieved its first worthwhile yr final yr with adjusted EBITDA of $17.9 million.
Bolt hasn’t shared monetary numbers for its micromobility enterprise. In November 2024, the corporate mentioned it had hit $2.11 billion in annual revenue throughout its enterprise items, however didn’t share how a lot it misplaced. Based on local reports, Bolt recorded income of round $2 billion in 2023 on an working lack of $108 million.
TechCrunch tried to observe up Wednesday with Hjelm about why he’d wish to purchase Bolt and whether or not he has been in talks with the corporate.
“I’m on the Swedish Home Mafia reunion and can take into consideration Bolt tomorrow,” he responded.
TechCrunch will replace this story if Hjelm has extra to say on the matter.