Bolt Eyes IPO
Avride & Rakuten head to Japan, Uber Eats & Zenion launch e-motos in London, Meet Mixue
How is it that you’ve never heard of the world’s largest food and beverage chain? Well after sizing up Mixue’s menu of tasty soft serve and boba, we’d definitely like them to expand to America! Speaking of other things you didn’t know, read on for some big Bolt IPO prognostications, as well as new delivery bot and e-moto partnerships.
This week’s edition is brought to you by Curbivore 2025.
Today:
Might Bolt Get Acquisitive Pre-IPO?
Avride Nabs New Contracts in Japan
Chart Time | Meet the World’s Biggest Resto Chain
Uber + Zenion Push London E-Motos
FINANCE | Europe’s Bolt Eyes Mega IPO
Estonia-based Bolt Technology OU is exploring an IPO, lining up Blackstone-spinout PJT Partners to strategize a public offering as soon as next year. The ride-hailing, food delivery and micromobility conglomerate scored a €220 million ($231 million) credit facility in 2024 that made it “IPO-ready” after a 2022 financing round notched the startup a €7.4 billion valuation from Sequoia and Fidelity. Besides Europe, Bolt operates in Africa, Asia and LatAm, and it recently began a push into North America under the “Hopp” brand.
The Big Picture: While the company is yet to release its 2024 financials, in 2023 it lost €94.2m on €1.7B ($1.78B) in revenue, which is about 1/3 of Lyft’s most recent annual turnover. (Of note — Lyft’s market cap is about the same as its annual revenue these days.) Bolt’s revenue was derived 82% from ridehailing, 9% from micromobility and 9% from delivery; although some claim the company is logging GMV as revenue for the delivery segment. If the company’s looking to beef up delivery prior to the public listing, it may have some opportunities to scavenge parts from the new JET-Prosus tie-up. Prosus is likely keen to offload its Canadian subsidiary SkipTheDishes, as it otherwise has no N. America operations; this would dovetail nicely with Bolt’s recent push into Toronto. If EU regulators force Prosus to divest some European markets due to anti-trust concerns from its existing partial-ownership of Delivery Hero, that could feed Bolt some more opportunistic acquisitions.
EVENTS | Delivery & Mobility Comes Together at Curbivore 2025
Industry Dive just called Curbivore one of the “9 industry trade shows to attend in 2025.” Returning to the Downtown LA Arts District this April 10th and 11th, Curbivore brings together the world’s foremost fleet operators, restaurateurs, regulators, retailers, startups, technologists and policy makers to discuss the intersection of transportation systems, small business, urban design and commerce.
AUTONOMY | Avride Heads to Tokyo with Rakuten
Austin-based Avride’s autonomous delivery robots are now live in central Tokyo, thanks to a new partnership with ecommerce heavy Rakuten. The startup, spun out of Yandex, has 10 sidewalk bots handling deliveries for the likes of Starbucks and local convenience stores in the Harumi, Kachidoki and Tsukishima neighborhoods.
The Big Picture: Avride recently launched in Jersey City with Uber Eats and at The Ohio State University with Grubhub. The latter deployment used to be a market controlled by Cartken, which has since shifted its sights more towards AMR operations. We’re sensing a bit of a pattern here, as Cartken also used to have a Japanese deployment with Rakuten. That project was out in the ‘burbs, while this one is in a dense, central neighborhood, albeit one with easily defined harbor edges, making it clear where service starts and stops.
CHART TIME | Meet the World’s Largest Restaurant Chain — Mixue
Who’s got the biggest F&B store count? No it’s not McDonald’s or Starbucks, heck it’s not even Luckin Coffee. It’s Mixue! For those of you not familiar (raise your hand…) Mixue is a China-based boba and ice cream shop, that’s climbed to over 45,000 international stores thanks to a small average store footprint and low franchise fees. Take a peek at its Australian social media presence and decide if you like it — an IPO is reportedly in the works.
FLEETS | Uber Eats Pushes E-Motos in London with Zenion
Londoners might notice their Uber Eats courier rolling up with a new ride — an electric motorcycle — thanks to the 3PD’s new partnership with Zenion. The two groups aim to get 3,000 couriers onto Vmoto CPx bikes by EOY, with Uber providing a £360 ($457) subsidy to each gig worker making the transition. A trial last year saw 350 couriers already make the switch to these electric motos, which run £75 per-week (including insurance) and can go 86 miles per charge.
The Big Picture: Uber’s making a big push to electrify its delivery and ridehail fleet in the British capital; already nearly 30% of the miles driven for Uber are electrified. Uber’s also pushed electric motorcycles in Kenya, and electric motorcycles and mopeds in cities the world over. DoorDash also just revealed its investments in two-wheeled deliveries are paying off, with cites like NYC, LA, SF and San Jose all seeing a surge in bike and scooter-powered deliveries.
A Few Good Links
Gorillas founder raising for new health-focused social platform. Blackbird launches resto loyalty software on the blockchain (doesn’t making loyalty points tradable defeat the point of “loyalty”?) Isuzu building South Carolina plant for commercial EVs. Subway franchisees grumble about $7 footlongs. Tariffs hit Canada and Mexico tomorrow. USPS launches Priority Next Day in 54 markets. Kroger Chairman pushed out over personal conduct. Fresh produce supply chain in trouble. Walgreens may split in three. Commercial vehicle upfitter Shyft turns 50. Domino’s debuts stuffed crust pizza. Uber pilots teen accounts in India. US factory activity stagnates. Mexico hits Chinese ecommerce platforms with 19% tariff.
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