E-scooter competition from Estonia

Lime, Tier, Voi and Spin - these are just some of the names of the start-ups offering e-scooters in Germany. Now they are getting a new competitor: The start-up Bolt from Estonia is launching its service in nine cities today.

The German market for scooters is highly competitive, the first providers have already given up. Now comes a new player: as of today, the start-up Bolt is present in nine cities with its scooters, as the news agency Reuters

reports. These include Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Fürth and Potsdam, with a total of 15,000 scooters in use at the start. The price per minute is five cents, lower than competitors in Germany, and unlocking fees will also be waived at launch.

Bolt was founded by Markus Villig in 2013, and today his start-up's scooters are available in over 40 countries on five continents. In December 2020, the Estonians raised $150 million, with hedge fund D1 Capital Partners leading the round. This year, Bolt still wants to expand its presence to 150 European cities, for which 100 million euros will be invested, Villig told Reuters

.

Bolt advertises that its scooters are fully recyclable, making them more environmentally friendly than those of its competitors.