Lyft acquires taxi app startup Free Now for $200M in first major European expansion to challenge Uber

Lyft is finally making its move into Europe. The U.S. ride-hailing company announced Wednesday it’s buying European taxi app startup Free Now in a deal valued at €175 million (roughly $199 million). The acquisition marks Lyft’s first major push outside North America and signals its intent to go head-to-head with Uber and other regional players across Europe.

Free Now isn’t a small fish. The startup started in 2009 as myTaxi and is based in Hamburg, Germany. Since 2019, it’s been jointly owned by German automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

“Lyft Inc. agreed to buy the European taxi-hailing app Freenow for about €175 million ($197 million), marking its first global expansion beyond the US and Canada,” Bloomberg reported.

The app operates in more than 150 cities across nine European countries—including Ireland, the U.K., Germany, and France—offering users access to taxis, ride-hailing services, e-scooters, e-mopeds, and e-bikes.

Once the deal closes (expected in the second half of 2025), Lyft and Free Now will reportedly serve over 50 million annual users combined.

The acquisition comes just two years after Lyft cut 1,072 jobs—about 26% of its workforce—and only a month after its co-founders stepped down.

Financially, Free Now is in solid shape. The company is EBITDA-positive and pulled in more than €1 billion in gross bookings in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.

Lyft’s CEO David Risher said the move wasn’t rushed. He told CNBC that when he joined the company two years ago, “we were losing share, we were losing money. We weren’t doing so great for riders or drivers.”

That’s changed. “Now, we pick you up about a minute faster, driver cancellations are down to less than 5%, and drivers are making billions of dollars on the platform. And our Canada operation has doubled this year over last year,” Risher said.

He sees Europe as the next logical step. “Looking at the strong service levels, looking at the fact that internationally, within Canada, we’re doing quite well. Now we said, ‘You know what, now is the time?’”

Lyft will be entering a competitive field. Uber has been operating in Europe since 2012 and, while it has gained a strong foothold, it’s also faced pushback from regulators. In London, the company was nearly banned twice over safety issues before securing a new license in 2022.

Free Now gives Lyft a readymade platform, local expertise, and a foothold in key cities. It’s a smart way to skip the uphill climb of building from scratch in markets where consumer behavior, local partnerships, and transportation rules vary widely.

If Lyft can bring the same improvements it made in North America to its new European operations, this could be the beginning of a much bigger international footprint.