Taxify rebrands to Bolt in Kenya

Ride-hailing firm Taxify is changing its name to Bolt and introducing. The update according to the company brings the brand identity in line with the company’s broader vision of transportation that has already expanded from ride-hailing, with cars and motorbikes, to scooter sharing.

Speaking on why the company chose to make the change, Markus Villig, CEO and co-founder, Bolt said, “Taxify launched five years ago with a mission to make urban transportation more convenient and affordable. Our first product was a taxi dispatch solution that gave the company its original name.”

The Estonian-born tech company has evolved in leaps and bounds since its inception to now serve 25 million customers in over 30 countries globally, making it a leader in Europe and Africa. It was also the first company to bring ride-hailing and scooter sharing together in one single app and is currently working on expanding the scooter sharing service across a number of European cities.

“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. Our 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. It also underscores our belief that the future of transportation will be electric”, General Manager for East Africa at Bolt, Shivachi Muleji, explained.

The new brand will be gradually rolled out across Bolt’s global markets over the following weeks

Taxify, launched in Kenya in the beginning of 2017 and operates in Nairobi and Mombasa.