Shared micromobility startup Voi is on the hunt for acquisitions. And on CEO Frederik Hjelm’s wishlist is Bolt, the European mobility super-app best known for ride-hailing.
Not that Bolt’s micromobility business is necessarily for sale — despite talk of Voi buying the company’s scooter and bike arm. Bolt declined to comment when TechCrunch reached out.
“Bolt is a great company, but they are mainly a ride-hailing company,” Hjelm told TechCrunch on stage at the Micromobility Industries roundtable in Brussels, where he was joined by Bird co-CEO Michael Washinushi and Dott/Tier CEO Henri Moissinac.
Hjelm said Bolt’s challenge is that it needs to be “extremely good in several verticals.” Aside from ride-hailing, Bolt offers grocery and food delivery, as well as car rentals.
“Micromobility is very difficult, and it has the hardware aspect, but no network effect like how food delivery and ride-hailing [can lead to] grocery delivery, as well,” Hjelm said.
He noted most people who pick up a dockless e-scooter or e-bike are locals who prioritize experience and affordability rather than the ability to use a “super app” like Bolt.
When provided an example of riders who use micromobility services because they recognize the brand — and might not want to download another app — he stuck to this thesis. Hjelm said he doesn’t think brand recognition is enough to make up for a worse user experience.
Of course, there’s no data proving that Voi offers a better user experience than Bolt. That didn’t stop others on the panel from joining the Bolt pile on.
“Bolt uses price as a loss leader,” said Bird’s Washinushi, referring to Bolt’s ability to rely on revenue from its other operations to grow its micromobility business at a loss. “They discount the price, and that’s how they acquire installs. My sense is they don’t make a huge investment in…really good operations in micromobility.”
Washinushi noted that Bird, as well as Dott and Voi, use a lot of data to rebalance vehicles.
“You can dump thousands of vehicles and hope people get rides, or you can… place half those vehicles at the right place and right time to optimize the rides and optimize the price,” he said. “And that’s [how] the business has really evolved in the past two or three years… that, for us, makes it a very self-sustaining business.”
In 2024, Bird said it achieved $19 million adjusted EBITDA profitability – quite the feat for a company that had delisted from the stock market and filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Voi also achieved its first profitable year last year with adjusted EBITDA of $17.9 million.
Bolt hasn’t shared financial numbers for its micromobility business. In November 2024, the company said it had hit $2.11 billion in annual revenue across its business units, but didn’t share how much it lost. According to local reports, Bolt recorded revenue of around $2 billion in 2023 on an operating loss of $108 million.
TechCrunch attempted to follow up Wednesday with Hjelm about why he’d want to acquire Bolt and whether he has been in talks with the company.
“I’m at the Swedish House Mafia reunion and will think about Bolt tomorrow,” he responded.
TechCrunch will update this story if Hjelm has more to say on the matter.
