Taxi service Taxify has announced that it is changing its name to Bolt which will also come with the introduction of a new logo. The company runs an on demand taxi service with cars, motorbikes, and scooters.
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 new brand will be gradually rolled out across Bolt’s global markets over the following weeks. Bolt users will not need to take any action as the app will update automatically.
“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 company was founded by Markus Villig and it launched in 2013. It has operations in Europe and Africa and its investors include Daimler, Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus. It launched in Kenya in the beginning of 2017 and operates in Nairobi and Mombasa. It has 25 million customers in over 30 countries.