NAIROBI, Kenya, May 26- Taxi-hailing firm Bolt has secured an Sh11 billion loan that will be used to boost its growth and development strategy.
Bolt, formerly Taxify, will also use the debt facility from United Kingdom based investment firm Naya Capital Management to upgrade product segments to include micro-mobility services and food delivery in Europe and Africa.
“Even though the crisis has temporarily changed how we move, the long-term trends that drive on-demand mobility such as declining personal car ownership or the shift towards greener transportation continue to grow,” said Bolt CEO and co-founder Markus Villig.
“The investment will enable us to continue offering affordable transportation to millions of customers and the best earnings for our partners during the post-COVD world,” he added.
Naya Capital Managing Partner Masroor Siddiqu added that the firm’s investment in Bolt will support its long-term view of expanding its business.
“We believe that Bolt is helping drive a fundamental change in how consumers interact with the transport infrastructure of their cities and look forward to the company’s continued execution on its strategic vision,” said Siddiqu.
The announcement comes at a time when the company announced plans to expand its transport business investing into scooters, bikes and delivery services across its markets.
In January, the firm also received Sh5.6 billion loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to launch more products in the market that include personalized mobility services like food delivery.
Bolt currently operates its ride-hailing services in more than 150 cities across Europe and Africa.
In the last months, Bolt has accelerated the expansion of its Bolt Food delivery service to cover 12 countries and launched Business Delivery, a service to aid vendors in need of a distribution partner and offer same-day delivery.
