Bolt to relocate driver hub to the City as UK users hit 9 million milestone
Ride-hailing platform Bolt has relocated its driver hub to a city centre location on the back of racing demand for its taxis, City PM has learned.
Bolt told City PM that it has relocated the hub from Chiswick to Bermondsey due to soaring passenger demand and increase in drivers, revealing that it now has 100,000 drivers and nine million users signed up on its UK platform – up from four million 2021.
Bolt, which was first launched in the UK in 2017, said it had experienced significant growth in London following the launch of a tie-up with the City’s traditional black cabs in April, which saw the iconic vehicles made available on the app.
Debbie Meijer, senior operations manager for Bolt in London, said: “Bolt’s offering and popularity with drivers and passengers continues to grow from strength-to-strength not only on a global level but also here in London and the UK.”
“Having a place right in the city centre where prospective and current drivers can easily check in made complete sense. We’re looking forward to welcoming them at our new hub,” Meijer added.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of the firm’s appointment of CFO Mikko Salovaara last week, who has been brought in to guide the firm as it preps the ground for an IPO in 2025.
Bolt revealed last week it had surpassed 150 million passengers globally, with 3.5 million drivers operating in 500 cities.
Despite the growth, the app is still well behind rival Uber, which has around 5.7 million drivers globally and five million active users each month in the UK, although accurate comparisons between the groups are difficult to make as both use different metrics to calculate their totals.