Estonian ride-hailing food delivery startup Bolt partners with Starship to use robots to deliver food in 45 countries

Back in 2021, we reported on Bolt after the Estonian ride-hailing startup secured a massive $713 million in funding to venture into the rapidly expanding online grocery delivery industry. Early last year, Bolt also raised $709 million to expand its transportation and food delivery super app; nearly doubling its valuation to $8.4 billion.

Fast forward a year later, Bolt announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with robotics firm Starship Technologies to provide food delivery services across the countries where it operates. Starting next year, Bolt plans to utilize thousands of Starship robots for delivering food in multiple countries.

At the moment, Starship already boasts a fleet of over 2,000 robots operating in Estonia, the UK, and the U.S., and they have successfully completed 5 million commercial deliveries.

Through this partnership, Starship will gain access to Bolt’s extensive customer base, which includes more than 100 million customers in over 45 countries and 500 cities. Bolt foresees that using robots for delivery will ultimately enhance their profitability per delivery.

“We are focused on providing well-rounded solutions to help make local transportation as sustainable as possible,” Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Bolt, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Starship offers a smart and much-loved service that has proven itself over the past five years and we’re excited to introduce this service to more people.”

Starship was founded in 2014 by former Skype co-founders, who initiated the testing of their self-driving delivery robots in London. Since then, their six-wheel robots have been actively serving over 50 service areas, facilitating last-mile delivery of food, groceries, and small packages.

Founded in 2013 by Markus Villig, Martin Villig, and Oliver Leisalu, the Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia-based startup’s services range from ride-hailing to micro-mobility and food delivery. Previously named Taxify, in March 2019 the company rebranded as Bolt to expand its transport options beyond private cars. Since then, Bolt has also expanded into several other lines of business, including online food and grocery delivery and e-scooters.

Bolt expanded its scooter operations two years ago to 45 cities in over 15 countries, including Sweden, Norway, and Portugal. And with 130,000 e-scooters and e-bikes on the streets in 2021, Bolt will officially become the largest micro-mobility provider in Europe.

Since its inception nine years ago, Bolt has become a fierce competitor to Uber, challenging the U.S. ride-hailing giant in key markets such as London and Paris. Today, Bolt now has 100 million customers across 45 countries in Europe and Africa.