Taxi-hailing service Taxify will be rebranding as Bolt, to bring the brand identity in line with the company’s broader vision of transportation that has already expanded from ride-hailing with cars to motorbikes and scooter sharing.
“Taxify launched five years ago with a mission to make urban transportation more convenient and affordable,” said Markus Villig, CEO and co-founder of Bolt.
“Our first product was a taxi dispatch solution that gave the company its original name.”
“While we’ve made progress on our mission, we’ve also started to outgrow parts of our brand, including the name. Given our ambition to solve transportation problems on an increasingly broader scale, we want the brand to reflect the company’s future rather than the past,” he said.
According to Villig, the new name ‘Bolt’ stands for fast, effortless movement – “exactly what the experience of getting around in a city should be, be it by car, scooter or public transport:, he said.
It also underscores the company’s belief that the future of transportation will be electric, according to Gareth Taylor, country manager for Bolt in South Africa.
The Estonian-born tech company now serves 25 million customers in over 30 countries globally and has grown to be a leader in Europe and Africa.
Bolt currently provides its services in six African countries, connecting drivers with passengers in more African cities than any other ride-hailing platform. It has plans to further expand its offering in East and West Africa, and in South Africa during the course of 2019.
The new brand will be gradually rolled out across Bolt’s global markets over the following weeks. Bolt users will not need to take any action as the app will update automatically.
